Three lessons for today from Emergency 1975
On March 21, 1977, India Gandhi decided to withdraw the Emergency after the results of that year's Lok Sabha elections were announced. While the electoral verdict was the last nail on the coffin, many other factors hugely contributed to compel Mrs Gandhi to backtrack. One of them was the satyagraha movement started mainly by the RSS and Sangh-inspired organisations.
The RSS's role in mobilising the satyagraha movement was appreciated by many, including by some who were diehard opponents of RSS ideology. Achyutrao Patwardhan, a noted socialist leader, is on record saying, 'I am pleased to learn that the volunteers of the RSS, as well as any other group of political resistance, were willing to openly collaborate and support those who opposed Emergency and are able to work with enthusiasm and integrity, against the diabolical regime that resorts to blatant repression and lies.'
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India Today
26 minutes ago
- India Today
Why Modi feels the need to demolish Nehru
Narendra Modi has always been a consummate performer: give him a stage, a mike, and a captive audience and the prime minister will more often than not be a showstopper. For 102 minutes in the Lok Sabha this week, Mr Modi was doing what he relishes most: talking about himself in third person while relentlessly targeting the speech may have been a tad too long, but since the prime minister speaks so rarely in Parliament, few will grudge him the extra air time. And yet, while Modi punched hard at his critics on the government's handling of Operation Sindoor, there was a familiar name from the past that kept recurring throughout the speech. On 14 occasions, the prime minister referred to the 'sins' of one of his predecessors, Jawaharlal Nehru. Which leads one to ask: what explains Modi's Nehru fixation?advertisementNehru died in May 1964 when Modi was in his early teens. Since then, India has had 13 different prime ministers, including Modi himself. The prime minister's first tryst with politics was in the Indira Gandhi era. It was, after all, the fight against the Emergency as a student activist in 1975 that kickstarted his political career. If there is any past prime minister Modi should feel aggrieved with, it ought to be Indira who arrested him and many hundreds of RSS swayamsevaks in the Emergency years. So, why is Indira so rarely the object of his derision while Nehru almost always is? Firstly, it must be emphasised that Nehru was unarguably the most committed 'secular' prime minister the country has seen. For him, a non-discriminatory, vigilant secularism was an article of faith, core to his wider political thought system. The fervent desire to ensure that India never became a 'Hindu Rashtra' or a 'Hindu Pakistan' meant that he often tangled with Hindutva forces, making every effort to marginalise, even ostracise them. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse only firmed up his resolve to challenge Hindu communalism at every juncture, seeing it as fundamentally antithetical to his idea of a plural, multi-religious the RSS then, Nehru was the prime 'enemy', someone who they viscerally hated at an ideological and political level. By contrast, Indira Gandhi was a leader who the RSS felt they could engage with and even secretly admired for her staunch 'nationalistic' credentials, which in her later years was also embellished with a distinct 'soft Hindu' Modi, who grew up in the womb of the Sangh Parivar, Nehru was inevitably always seen as a villainous figure who had tried to crush the saffron brotherhood. One of the most influential figures in shaping Modi's political beliefs is the RSS's longest-serving chief, MS Golwalkar, better known as 2008, Modi authored a book titled Jyotipunj (Beams of Light) in which he retold the biographies of 16 RSS men who had inspired him. Pride of place was given to Guru Golwalkar who was compared to Buddha, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Through his long tenure as RSS sarsanghchalak from 1940 to 1973, Golwalkar saw Nehru as his principal adversary, as someone who was preventing Hindutva from gaining wider acceptability. In 1952, the RSS journal Organiser even wrote that 'Nehru would live to regret the failure of universal adult franchise in India'. When the Guru could have such deep animus to India's first prime minister, could his ardent follower be far behind?advertisementThe second reason for the acrimonious Modi versus Nehru battle must lie with the Congress party itself. Post Nehru's demise, the Congress party effectively elevated Nehru into a demi-god rather than a democratically elected leader of post-Independence India. It meant that there was a hagiographic narrative built around Nehru which prevented a serious debate on the achievements and mistakes of a prime ministerial tenure stretching 17 long years. Preventing a more critical analysis of Nehru in the Congress era – be it on socialism or his Kashmir and China policies -- meant that the BJP seized on the opportunity once in power to systematically undermine the Nehruvian legacy at every raises a third contentious issue: the rise of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. The post-Nehru Congress has been principally shaped by the dominance of dynastical politics, revolving around a single family. It was Indira Gandhi who made the party a family inheritance and yet somehow Nehru is accused of being the progenitor of the 'dynastical' principle when the reality is that it was Lal Bahadur Shastri who was his chosen historian Ram Guha writes, 'The actions of his descendants have deeply damaged Nehru's reputation.' Not only was Nehru engraved in statues, his name was etched in public consciousness by a renaming spree that focused on him and other Gandhi-Nehru family members. A Right to Information query in 2013 pointed out that over 450 schemes, building projects and institutions were named after three family members: Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi. Once again, this blind adoration, bordering on outright chamchagiri, has given a Modi-led BJP an opportunity to target Nehru through the actions of his leads one to make a final key point on Modi's Nehru fixation. For a larger-than-life prime minister who only last year saw himself as a 'non-biological God', Nehru alone stands between him and a yearning to be recognised as India's greatest prime minister. Having only just surpassed Indira Gandhi as the prime minister with the longest continuous tenure in office, only Nehru remains between Modi and an impressive statistical this isn't just about a record-breaking numbers game. Modi needs to ceaselessly focus on Nehru to convince his followers that he is the first prime minister to totally break away from the Nehruvian idea of India and reshape and build a 'new' India based on principles which the RSS is fiercely aligned the RSS looks to glorify a civilisational past and ancient Hindu scriptures, Nehru was seeking to build a modern society based on reason and science. To shatter the Nehruvian monopoly over ideas, Modi needs to demolish the man himself. The only way to do that is to attack every decision that Nehru took, be it on foreign policy or on the domestic front. Then, be it dismantling the Planning Commission or now suspending the Indus Water Treaty, the larger aim is clear: downsize Nehru by highlighting his flaws and negating his many achievements. In the process, Modi and his cheerleaders are making a cardinal mistake: the more you slander Nehru with half-truths and lies, the more he comes alive in the public Amidst the recent 'retirement' at 75 years buzz, I asked a BJP leader when, if ever, Prime Minister Modi might consider giving up the chair. 'Not till 2031 at least,' was the response. Why? 'Because that's the year Modi will overtake Nehru to become India's longest-serving PM!'(Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author. His latest book is 2024: The Election That Surprised India)- Ends(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Tune InMust Watch IN THIS STORY#Narendra Modi
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Top 10 Indian states with highest number of operational airports
Airports in India: India has emerged as the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world, after US and China. Addressing the Plenary Session of World Air Transport Summit at Bharat Mandapam in June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the government is investing in developing world class airport infrastructure in the country. He also added that the handling capacity of airports has reached 500 million passengers annually. 'Today, Bharat is the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world. And Bharat is working on a futuristic roadmap to fully maximize this potential. We are investing in world-class airport infrastructure. Indian carriers have placed orders for over 2,000 new aircraft. And this is just the beginning. Bharat's aviation sector is standing at a take-off point from where it is ready to soar to great heights. And this journey will not just cross geographical boundaries, but will also lead the world towards sustainability, green mobility, and equitable access,' the PM said. Currently, there are 162 operational airports in the country. The government has also formulated a Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008 for development of Greenfield airports in the country. Responding to a question in Lok Sabha on July 31, Murlidhar Mohol, Minister of State (MoS), Civil Aviation, said: 'At present, there are 162 operational airports in the country. Government of India (GoI) has formulated a Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008 for development of Greenfield airports in the country. In addition, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) launched Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) on 21.10.2016 to enhance regional air connectivity from unserved and underserved airports in the country and make air travel affordable to the masses.' According to Mohol, Uttar Pradesh leads with the highest number of operational airports at 17, followed by Maharashtra with 15 and Gujarat with 13. Uttarakhand has 12 operational airports, Karnataka has 10, Madhya Pradesh has 8, while both Rajasthan and Assam have 7 each. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh follow with 6 airports each. Airports Operational India: Full list (Source: As per statement submitted by MoS Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol on July 31, 2025 in Lok Sabha; Note: CE= Civil Enclave, H=Heliport, WA= Water Aerodrome) Anish Mondal is a business journalist with over nine years of experience. He writes on diverse subjects such as Infrastructure, Railways, Roadways, Aviation, Politics, Market, Parliamentary affairs, Corporate earnings, General and International news etc. ... Read More
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
'One peace deal per month': White House pushes for Nobel Peace Prize for Donald Trump; cites India-Pak conflict
US President Donald Trump with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday reasserted that US President Donald Trump has facilitated numerous peace agreements and ceasefires globally and emphasised that these diplomatic achievements, occurring approximately monthly, warrant his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Addressing the Thailand-Cambodia situation, Leavitt stated, "On the peace front, President Trump helped deliver an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia. The two countries were engaged in a deadly conflict that had displaced more than 300,000 people until President Trump stepped in to put an end to it." "President Trump has brokered on average about one peace deal or ceasefire per month during his six months in office. It's well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize," she added. 'Nobel For Trump': Karoline Makes Big Announcement; 'From Israel-Iran To India-Pak, U.S...' According to CNN, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who currently chairs ASEAN, announced the ceasefire agreement after facilitating discussions between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai near Kuala Lumpur. She said that the US President's direct communication with both prime ministers included a clear message that trade discussions would cease unless the conflict ended. This resulted in swift peace negotiations, preserving numerous lives and enabling trade talks to continue. Leavitt outlined Trump's involvement in resolving conflicts between various nations, including Israel-Iran, Rwanda-DRC, India-Pakistan, Serbia-Kosovo, and Egypt-Ethiopia. She highlighted that these achievements averaged one diplomatic success monthly during his six-month tenure. Regarding India-Pakistan relations, Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for de-escalating tensions following India's response to Pakistani aggression. However, India maintained its stance that matters concerning Jammu and Kashmir remain bilateral. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Operation Sindoor discussion in Lok Sabha, stating, "No leader in the world told India to stop its operation. On the night of 9th May, the Vice President of America tried to talk to me. He tried for an hour, but I was in a meeting with my army, so I could not pick up his call. Later, I called him back. The Vice President of America told me on the phone that Pakistan is going to launch a big attack. My answer was that if Pakistan has this intention, it will cost them a lot. If Pakistan attacks, we will respond by launching a big attack. This was my answer..." Operation Sindoor commenced on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK following the Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 civilian lives. India successfully countered Pakistan's military response and targeted its airbases. The hostilities concluded after Pakistan's DGMO contacted their Indian counterpart to establish a ceasefire. 'Trump Calls Thailand-Cambodia Ceasefire 'Easy One', Says He Already Settled India-Pak
