Sh. K.N. Gupta
Sr. Journalist
Advisor, Motherland Voice
May I inform our viewers that our newspaper , The Motherland , in which I worked since its inception of Feb 1, 1971 to its seizure by the govt in infamous Emergency imposed on June 25, 1975, The Motherland had published or forecast the Emergency in much advance in an article in mid- January 1975 . The following is an extract from a document published in a reliable book :
Remarkably, Motherland, a newspaper published by the Jana Sangh, carried a detailed article written by a Jana Sangh Lok Sabha MP from Maharashtra, Vasant Kumar Pandit, in which he gave details of Indira Gandhi’s plans to arrest opposition leaders and muzzle the press. In this article published in mid-January 1975, Pandit even mentioned the names of the hundreds of politicians and journalists who would be arrested.
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) questioned Pandit but he managed to convince the IB that since he was a renowned astrologer, this was a mere astrological prediction on his part and not based on any confidential information. The lists of those arrested on June 26th, 1975 proved Pandit had got every single name correct, six months in advance. Pandit also told Lal Krishna Advani that they would all be in jail for the next two years.
