“Emergency, Sanjay Gandhi and the Maruti saga”, First Post, June 25, 2024:
“In 1969, Sanjay Gandhi was 23 years old and had been trained at the Rolls Royce factory in Crewe in the UK. Though he did not complete the course, Sanjay was one of several applicants to seek a licence to manufacture a small and cheap car in India. In 1970, he was the lone applicant to have been granted the licence.
The Haryana government, under Bansi Lal, handed over three hundred acres of land for Sanjay’s Maruti factory; some fifteen thousand farmers were evicted to free the land. P.N. Haksar, who was principal secretary to prime minister Indira Gandhi till 1973, was dropped from his post for opposing the Maruti project.
Indira Gandhi was charged with nepotism. She made little effort to deny the charge. Each time the matter was raised in Parliament, Indira would shrug off the criticism. This period also saw the emergence of Jai Prakash Narayan, a freedom fighter who was living quietly in Bihar till then…….”
Read the full article at Firstpost.com
