
RSS has moved on: Shashi Tharoor on Rahul Gandhi's remark that RSS prefers Manusmriti to Constitution
Rahul Gandhi criticized the RSS, claiming they favor Manusmriti over the Constitution after Dattatreya Hosabale suggested reviewing 'socialist' and 'secular' in the preamble. Shashi Tharoor acknowledged Gandhi's historical accuracy regarding past RSS stances. However, Tharoor believes the RSS has evolved since then, suggesting they should clarify their current views.
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After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit back at RSS for Dattatreya Hosabale's call for a review of the words 'socialist' and 'secular' in the preamble by stating that RSS preferred the Manusmriti to the Constitution, CWC member Shashi Tharoor said while Gandhi's statement was accurate in stating what the then Sangh leader MS Golwalkar and others stated at the time of Independence, he (Tharoor) felt "RSS has moved on from those days"."Historically, he's (Gandhi) referring to the fact that it was a criticism expressed at the time of the adoption of the Constitution... But I think the RSS itself has moved on from those days. So, as a historical statement, it's accurate, whether it's a reflection of how they feel today, RSS should be in the best position to answer," he said in Ahmedabad in response to media queries on Gan- dhi's comment.

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an hour ago
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'Nehru's tryst with destiny seems to have been turned into a tryst with despotism – and by his own daughter,' he wrote in The Spectator. Raghavan also says Mrs Gandhi was disturbed by the negative reportage in the international press. In his book, he cites a letter that she wrote to the Indian High Commissioner in London, in which she rebuked the British press for 'maligning' her and her son Sanjay Gandhi. However, Raghavan doesn't believe the negative press affected her much. 'The objective fact is that neither the British government nor the American government actually put any pressure on her to end the Emergency.' Historian Gyan Prakash, however, believes that Mrs Gandhi was conscious of her international image. 'The Emergency had broken many of the ties she had, including friendship with American writer Dorothy Norman, as one can see from their exchange of letters,' he says. Mrs Gandhi's secretary P N Dhar, writing several years later, offered another explanation — that, being the PM, she had started yearning for the public connect she had established. 'She was nostalgic about the way people reacted to her in the 1971 campaign and she longed again to hear the applause of the multitudes,' Dhar wrote. Arguing along similar lines, Prakash says: 'Indira Gandhi, in the end, wanted legitimacy to her role and thought that the elections would legitimise her power, including the Emergency… If one thinks of Indira Gandhi's long career, it is true that the way she had ruled was to try and secure popular support for her power. She was not prepared to rule as an authoritarian figure in the long run.' Given that Gandhi's private papers have yet to be made accessible, there is no conclusive way to know what persuaded her to begin the process of ending the Emergency. However, as she spoke on the radio on January 18, 1977, her opponents were being released from jails across the country. The following day, the leaders of four Opposition parties — Morarji Desai's Congress (O), Jana Sangh, Bharatiya Lok Dal and Socialist Party — met at Desai's residence in Delhi. The next day Desai announced to the press that they would fight the elections under a common party and its symbol. On January 23, the Janata (People's) Party was launched in the presence of Jayaprakash Narayan or JP. The speed with which the Opposition parties merged to form the Janata Party stunned Mrs Gandhi. She had calculated that there would not be sufficient time for these parties to fulfill legal and technical requirements meant for creation of a new party. 'JP had been trying to bring everyone together since 1974 itself,' says Abhishek Choudhary, who authored the book Vajpayee: the Ascent of the Hindu Right 1924-1977. In 1977, however, they were desperate, and scared that unless they presented themselves as a united force, they would be defeated. Choudhary states that despite being united, the Opposition was far from sure of victory. What shifted the mood in the Opposition camp was the resignation of Jagjivan Ram from the Congress. One of the country's tallest Dalit leaders, Jagjivan, popularly known as 'Babuji', was a Congress stalwart whose defection dealt a blow to the party and boosted the Opposition's morale. The newspapers called it the moment when the 'J-bomb' exploded. Much has been written about the election rallies that turned increasingly fiery and eventful in the ensuing days. So was the day of the results. Journalist Coomi Kapoor, who was a reporter at the Express at the time, recalls, in her memoir on The Emergency, the evening of March 20, 1977, when the poll results started pouring in. Outside the Express office, she notes, there was a billboard where the latest results were put up manually. Each time a fresh Janata Party win was shown on the board, wild cheers erupted. Coins were showered on the man updating the results. 'Some people were doing the bhangra, while others were laughing and joking, 'Mummy meri car gayi', 'Beta meri sarkaar gayi',' writes Kapoor. By late evening, when the Express announced that Gandhi was trailing in her Rae Bareli constituency, the crowd burst firecrackers. 'Old-timers said they had not witnessed such public exuberance since Independence Day in 1947,' Kapoor adds. The election outcome saw the Janata Party emerging as the victor, which set the stage for the formation of the country's first non-Congress government. Most of the ministers lost their seats. Next day, at an early-morning Cabinet meeting held by Mrs Gandhi, the Emergency was revoked. Adrija Roychowdhury leads the research section at She writes long features on history, culture and politics. She uses a unique form of journalism to make academic research available and appealing to a wide audience. She has mastered skills of archival research, conducting interviews with historians and social scientists, oral history interviews and secondary research. During her free time she loves to read, especially historical fiction. ... Read More