Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday recalled the Emergency-era struggle and stated that he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison at the age of 23.
Singh stated that he had always been interested in politics when he was a student when he spoke to students at an event in Lucknow.
"I was interested in politics since my student life, and then I joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Gradually, I kept moving towards politics," Rajnath Singh recalled.
He told IAS students in Lucknow, "I was sent to jail at the age of 23 during the time of emergency."
"How decent of a man I must have been that I was thrown in jail during the emergency," he added as a jibe.
He went on to say that the country was fighting a war to restore democracy.
"When the emergency was imposed, I also joined the agitation. I was in jail for 18 months and forgot the IAS. As soon as I came out of jail, I learned that I got a ticket for a member of parliament at the age of 25," he recalled.
Speaking on the role of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, Singh said, "The day the political leaders of this country will learn to say no and bureaucrats will learn to say yes, this country will start flourishing from that day. A crisis of credibility is developing in the politics of India due to this (politicians saying yes to everything, even to things they can't do, due to which the public is losing faith in the politicians). There should not be a difference between words and deeds."
PM Modi invokes 1975 Emergency in Mann Ki Baat
On Sunday's 102nd episode of "Mann Ki Baat," Prime Minister Narendra Modi also talked about the emergency and called it a "dark chapter" in India's history.
The Prime Minister stated that the Emergency of 1975, which was imposed by the Central government led by Indira Gandhi at the time, was a "dark period" in Indian history and that millions of people strongly opposed it.
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