Supreme Court had let us down during Emergency, says Advani

NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader L K Advani today said the Supreme Court "had really let down everybody by failing to stand up" against the government during Emergency.

The BJP patriarch said it would be incorrect to say that the whole judiciary had failed us during the Emergency, it was the Supreme Court that had really let down everybody.

"I am not inclined to agree that the judiciary as a whole succumbed during the Emergency.... It is the Supreme Court which let us down," Advani said.

The BJP leader said the Supreme Court had "bowed to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi" mainly because several judges were superseded.

He was speaking at a function held here to inaugurate Kuldip Nayar's book 'Emergency Retold'.

Advani said three sections of the society- political activists belonging to the opposition parties, the media and the judiciary- were the worst affected by the Emergency. Among these, the judiciary upto the High Courts- behaved the best.

The BJP leader, who was incarcerated during the Emergency, said the defeat of Indira Gandhi in the elections after it was lifted is the biggest guarantee that democracy will survive in this country.

"Moreover, no government will dare to impose the Emergency ever again," Advani said.