Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday criticised the Congress leadership, alleging that the party has failed to acknowledge its own mistakes and shortcomings. His remarks came amid a political exchange over the Women's Reservation Bill, after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi responded to Rijiju's call for the party to extend “unconditional support” to the legislation.

Rijiju contrasted the current Congress leadership with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi while referring to an old interview in which she discussed the Emergency imposed in 1975. Sharing a clip from the interview on X, the Union minister said that although the BJP disagreed with the policies and decisions taken by Indira Gandhi, he believed she had been direct in acknowledging the actions taken by her government.

“Now, the Congress party is not even realising their own errors & shortcomings,” Rijiju wrote in his post. He used the historical interview to underline his criticism of the present-day Congress, arguing that the party's leadership should recognise its own shortcomings rather than avoid acknowledging them.

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In the interview shared by Rijiju, Indira Gandhi defended the arrest of Opposition leaders during the Emergency. She argued that some Opposition figures had sought to take political confrontations to the streets after believing they could not defeat the government through elections. She referred to statements attributed to former Prime Minister Morarji Desai about surrounding the Prime Minister's residence and Parliament and disrupting government functioning.

Indira Gandhi also referred to what she described as a threat by an Opposition member to win through violence if an electoral victory could not be achieved through voting. While defending the Emergency, she further discussed what she described as a broader conspiracy involving both internal unrest and foreign interference. She argued that the situation had destabilised the subcontinent and suggested that international agencies were involved in developments at the time.

When asked in the interview why foreign interference had not been explicitly mentioned in a letter she had written to the President during the Emergency, Indira Gandhi responded that it was not necessary to mention every detail in such correspondence. Rijiju's decision to share the archival interview has brought the political debate over the Emergency into the current discussion surrounding Congress and the Women's Reservation Bill.

The exchange comes as the BJP and Congress continue to differ over issues surrounding women's political representation and the proposed legislation. Rijiju's latest remarks are part of a broader political criticism of the Congress leadership, while Rahul Gandhi's response to his challenge has added another layer to the ongoing debate between the two parties.

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