BJP plans Emergency protests

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 12. The BJP is planning a week-long protest against the Emergency to remind the new generation of the excesses committed 25 years ago although a number of personalities who had attained notoriety and were closely associated with the Indira Gandhi regime are now very much part of the new political establishment.

In Delhi, on June 26 - the Emergency was declared on the midnight of June25/26 in 1975 - Mr. L.K. Advani, Union Home Minister, will address a convention of those who had been arrested at the Talkatora Stadium. The next day, he is to address another meeting in Ahmedabad along with party president, Mr. Kushabhau Thakre. On June 25, Mr. Thakre will address a meeting in Hyderabad along with party general secretary, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu, and programmes have been organised for a week up to July 1 in Patna, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Bangalore, Bhopal and Jaipur.

Mr. Naidu who made the announcement today was asked what the party would do with the ``Emergency villains'' such as Mr. Jagmohan, Ms. Maneka Gandhi and Mr. Bansi Lal, with whom the current ruling establishment has been and is associated.

The BJP's answer was that the campaign was not against personalities and individuals but against the larger concept of attack against democracy. Mr. Naidu said there was nothing to link the Emergency excesses with Mr. Jagmohan or Ms. Maneka Gandhi.

The party also took note of the continued caste violence in Bihar and said that it was a ``free-for-all situation.'' The party has decided to send a three-member team - comprising Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Mr. S.S. Ahluwalia and Mr. Sanjay Paswan - to make a spot assessment.

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Section  : National
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