New Delhi: Comparing the current situation in India with the 1975 Emergency is unwarranted and inappropriate, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said.
"During the dark days of the Emergency, civil rights were curbed and basic amenities were made inaccessible. Now, people are all free to move around. The two scenarios cannot be compared," he said in an exclusive interaction with ETV Bharat on Saturday. However, he opined that the incumbent government might be treading the 'dark days' path with its decisions and policies. "But, it is certainly our fault too as we do not question the government. For that matter, I do not like certain things in the BJP... things that are not in sync with the BJP's core principles," he said.
Comparing India's current situation with emergency period would be wrong: Subramanian Swamy On the Opposition comparing the house arrest of Jammu & Kashmir leaders to an Emergency-like situation, Swamy said they had the right to move the court and that the government initiated certain measures to maintain peace in the Valley.
Read:| 46 years of Emergency: Haryana recollects the horror
On the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, he said the Article was temporary and hence the government decided to remove it after 70 years. On the Congress' demand for restoration of statehood, Swamy said the Congress was willing to commit suicide by raising such issues. "The Congress only knows to criticise the BJP," he said.
On China's alleged attempts to invade parts of India, the Rajya Sabha MP said, "The Congress never pointed out the neighbouring country's attempts to barge into India. China has always tried to overpower us. I am not even happy with the Centre's move against China. We should have trusted our forces and fought with China for trying to occupy our land," he said.
In order to encourage people towards striving for a better standard of living, Swamy said schools with good facilities should be made affordable to all and school fees be waived off for quality education. He pointed out that only 1.5 per cent of the nation's GDP was used on school infrastructure.
Displeasure against his party
Criticising the policies of the Finance Ministry introduced in times of COVID-19, he said a sizeable population had suffered and middle-class people had slipped below the poverty line. "I feel extremely sad. Our Finance Ministry has no idea of economics," he said.
Speaking about the Centre's COVID-19 management, the BJP MP said that the Prime Minister should have focused on ramping up vaccine production . "We boasted about our management on global platforms after the first wave and did not gear up for the second. We failed to learn. We must have cautioned people. We have to mend our ways and change our egoistic behaviour," he said. He also slammed the Opposition that it alerted the Centre late over the shortage of vaccines. "They should have stopped the Centre at the time it was supplying vaccines to other countries," he asserted.
Read:| Emergency in India: A glance at the nation's darker past
Expressing confidence over the BJP's win in the upcoming elections, Swamy said that Modi should consider keeping elderly leaders off from key portfolios before contesting his next polls. Pointing out the lack of excitement among the BJP workers, Swamy said 'Hindutva' was the BJP's soul and only the RSS and true BJP supporters should be given a chance to hold responsibilities and positions in the party, as the new joinees had the tendency to turn their backs on the party.
He rubbished allegations against the Ram Temple land 'scam', saying Champat Rai, the General Secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, was innocent. Talking about his upcoming project, Swamy said he will be taking up the Kashi Vishwanath Mukti Mission as the saint community had asked him to lead the mission.
