Besides Emergency, operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple was another blot on its record, he said, throwing a challenge at the present Congress leadership and asking if it had any views on these issues.
"If one looks back at the history of the Congress Party after independence, the blots on it are economic reforms being delayed by over two decades, transformation of India in to a dynastic democracy, the imposition of Emergency in 1975, Operation Blue Star and corruption.
On June 26, 1975, Indira Gandhi imposed an internal emergency in the country, he said, adding "the phoney reason she gave was that there was a breakdown of public order in as much as Jai Prakash Narain had asked the police and the army not to follow illegal orders."
The actual reason, however, was that her continuation as the Prime Minister was threatened since the Allahabad High Court had unseated her as Member of Parliament for adopting corrupt practices during her election, he said.
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"The Press was subjected to pre-censorship. The Press became a spokesperson of the dictator. No public protest was allowed.
Recalling the days of Emergency, Jaitley said Parliament without an opposition amended the Constitution in order to legitimise a Constitutional dictatorship and only political workers offered some resistance by courting arrest and going to jail.
He outlined as "most significant" the collapse of the media and the Supreme Court before the dictatorship.
"The standards of accountability of the political class are high," he said, adding that the "even the dictator had to face an electorate when faced with International and National opinion pressures.