On Monday, March 27, American politician Ro Khanna claimed that his maternal grandfather had ‘personally’ informed his mother that he opposed the Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency and reprimanded scientist and author Dr Anand Ranganathan for pointing it out. Khanna accused Dr Ranganathan of ‘attacking’ a freedom fighter, when in reality, all Dr Ranganathan did was put across facts which are on record.
Shame attacking a freedom fighter. From Mom, “Nanaji personally opposed Emergency— don’t know if he did that publicly. When Indra Gandhi lost election before she declared Emergency— he wrote to her to resign and call new election.” Check her archives.
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) March 27, 2023
Dr Ranganathan was referring to the Lok Sabha records extracted by defence analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra which proved how Ro Khanna’s maternal grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar had indeed extended support to the Emergency, the dark period in Indian politics where freedom of citizens was curbed.
The documents from the Lok Sabha archives were shared by Iyer-Mitra in a tweet.
Here’s proof that @RoKhanna is lying about his grandfather opposing the Emergency of 1975-77. The voting records conclusively show Amarnath Vidyalankar voting FOR the emergency. These are original documents from the @LokSabhaSectt library. Also note the true heroes who voted NO pic.twitter.com/tUFTRcKQZD
— Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) March 27, 2023
As seen above, the relevant portion of the document states the list of Members of Parliament who had supported the Emergency. On page 40, one can see the ‘aye’ from Amarnath Vidyalankar, who is the maternal grandfather of Ro Khanna.
Hence, no matter what Vidyalankar told his daughter or what his daughter told Ro Khanna about him ‘not being in favour of Emergency’, he did on Lok Sabha records, vote in favour of it. The Chinese whispers, therefore, do not hold water.
What was Emergency?
In 1975 that Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the then President of India, under the auspices of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, announced a countrywide Emergency, plunging the country into an era of crushed individual freedoms, arbitrary arrests of dissidents and political opponents, and draconian centralisation of power.
The Emergency came into force on 25 June 1975 and remained in effect till 21 March 1977. To this date, it remains one of the highly contested chapters in the country’s modern history. The Emergency was marked by unchecked state incarceration of political dissidents who raised their voices against Mrs Gandhi or refused to comply with her autocratic impulses. There were reports of frequent human rights violations and widespread repression as the Indira Gandhi-led regime imposed sweeping measures to suppress criticism, jail political rivals and censor the press.
Ro Khanna controversy
It started with Khanna’s unsolicited inputs on India’s internal affairs. Soon after Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in ‘Modi surname’ defamation case, as per the section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, he stood disqualified as an MP. Khanna, then alleged that this was ‘deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy’. He claimed that this is not what his grandfather sacrificed ‘years in jail’ for.
To this, many pointed out how for all his pontification, the grandfather in context also supported Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency that is the darkest chapter in history of independent India, the same independence he claims his grandfather fought for. To that, Khanna claimed that his grandfather had in fact opposed the Emergency and how he had written two letters to Indira Gandhi opposing it and ‘left Parliament soon after’.
Except, as can be seen above, he supported the Emergency on the only official record that exists. And he continued to remain an MP and ceased being one after he did not contest the 1977 elections held after Emergency was lifted.
Upset at being made aware of facts, Ro Khanna continues to stick to the version of history his mother told him and not which exists on record.
