Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) chief and prominent journalist Ram Bahadur Rai almost candidly attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government on Sunday by saying that no political party has internal democracy. Speaking at a seminar ‘Lessons to be learnt from the Emergency (1975-77),’ organized by the Subramanian Swamy-led Virat Hindustan Sangam in New Delhi, the IGNCA chief said, “In 1975, there was one party [the Congress] which did not have internal democracy. Today, no party has it.”
The event was organized to celebrate Swamy’s dramatic entry into and escape from the Parliament House 40 years ago during the Emergency. This was at a time when, as a prominent Opposition leader, he was a proclaimed offender.