As the world gears up to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, a pertinent question looms ~ how far have we truly come in achieving gender equality? In India, women have risen to positions of power, yet they continue to battle the deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset that seeks to diminish their contributions and limit their aspirations.
The opposition Congress remained absent in the Rajasthan Assembly on Thursday over the deadlock following satirical reference on former prime minister late Indira Gandhi by a minister and subsequent suspension of six MLAs last week.
Visiting a district, decades later, opens up floodgates of memory. When I think of Kakinada, the district headquarters of the famous East Godavari district of undivided Andhra Pradesh, where I had served in 1979-81, certain images endure.
The Opposition Congress in Rajasthan boycotted the proceedings in the state assembly on Tuesday and held a dharna at the gate of the assembly premises protesting against the remark on late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the subsequent suspension of six of the party MLAs.
The film, which delves into the turbulent period of the Emergency declared in India in 1975 by Indira Gandhi, has found itself at the center of a geopolitical impasse.
While Nixon and Kissinger adamantly supported the army rulers of Pakistan, the carnage in East Pakistan continued. The Nixon administration put considerable premium on its reliance on Islamabad for facilitating normalized relations with Beijing, as that was its top foreign policy concern. Kissinger was categorical, 'Yahya must be kept afloat for six more months'
Let us turn to Gandhiji, who ruled the Congress with an iron fist concealed by goats milk, from 1920 to 1946. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose won the Congress presidential election with a substantial majority in the AICC, defeating Gandhis favourite, Pattabhi Sitaramayya. The great leader strongly disapproved of Netajis conduct. He had been president in 1938 and his standing again for the election was not to Gandhi's liking. He, therefore, saw to it that Netaji could not function in office
As a senior member of the Congress party, he was trusted by his colleagues to present cogent analyses of political issues and chart a course that others could follow, including the drafting of party manifestos
PM Modi also attached a clip of his Mann ki Baat radio address last year in which he had spoken about the Emergency era.
The announcement of the Emergency was made on June 25, 1975, days after the Allahabad High Court found Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices and debarred her as a parliamentarian for six years.
