The Congress party on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled Lal Krishna Advani's invitation to an event marking the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Emergency after hearing the Bharatiya Janata Party veteran's views on emergency powers.
"I was told that initially, Modi ji wanted to invite Advani ji for this [event]. But I understand that after hearing Advani ji's opinion about the existence of emergency powers, the Prime Minister did a review thinking on this [the invitation]," Congress leader Tom Vadakkan told ANI.
Earlier in the day, sources stated that Advani, one of the prominent opposition leaders jailed by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government during the Emergency, was not invited to an event where the BJP honoured those who went to jail during the period.
This came after Advani, in an interview given to an English daily earlier this month, had said that he did not see any sign in India's current polity that assured him of any outstanding aspect of leadership, adding that he did not have the confidence that a situation like the Emergency would not be repeated in the country.
Indira Gandhi had declared Emergency in the country on June 25, 1975 after the Allahabad High Court and subsequently the Supreme Court found her election to the Lok Sabha 'null and void'. Formally proclaimed by then-president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the decision to enforce the Emergency was taken without the approval of the then-union cabinet.
