Worst Prime Ministers of India

Not Nehru
Nehru was a leader recognized in world politics which made him a choice for being PM. I have read about his affairs but that doesn’t challenge his leadership capabilities. The only thing he did wrong was underestimating China and playing fool there but he was confident of US and USSR backing him there so he played that strategically but it backfired.

Yes Indira
Now coming to the PM who did most damage to the country, Indira Gandhi stands out as an obvious answer. She was an example of anarchist to the core.

A recap of all the wrong she did back then:-

1) Winning election by fraud and when found guilty she declared emergency and put everyone in jail who spoke against her.

2) Bluestar operation, first creating a terrorist and then doing something so reckless which alienated a community.

3) Indira closed the economy of India, had she made the right choice then this country would have been a different place altogether.

4) She pushed country back to where Nehru Ji left and Shashtri Ji picked it by a closed economic approach, Favoritism and her best punch Emergency.

Relationship with Pak were already bitter and she did not do any good
by fighting 1971 war though I am not totally against her helping create Bangladesh but that was done in not the best strategic fashion. In fact she did it successfully but at the cost of a lifetime of animosity from a neighboring country. Also now Bangladeshi terrorism is catching up at a good speed.

No doubt she was ballsy but she was a bad leader because she had no convictions, she could not handle a crisis and she could not deal with critics. More importantly, she lacked the ability to build a team of talented people in the party and in the government. She wanted trusted lieutenants and she had plenty of them around.

Yes Manmohan
Manmohan Singh can be called another obvious choice for a bad PM because he did nothing except all the effort he put in saving one of the most corrupt family of India.

1) He was Prime Minister and there was corruption going on in ministry directly under him and he kept his eyes closed.

2) He took no action except speaking occasionally agaisnst Pak’s ceasefire, murder of soldiers, terrorist attacks.

3) He was(and is) a sharp and shrewd economist and his best answer to rising inflation, rate of fuels and commdoities was “Coalition government has its own challenges”.

He never even tried to motivate people like a leader. He was merely put there as an honest face to win election for his clean image which worked well in 2009. He was a terrible and a spineless leader.

Emergency in India: Why it was the darkest hours and so controversial?

This Post was my response to a question on Quora: http://www.quora.com/History-of-India/Why-is-the-National-Emergency-of-1975-seen-as-one-of-the-most-controversial-times-in-the-History-of-India/answer/Puneet-Tripathi-1?__snids__=240894766&__nsrc__=2

Background:
There were allegations by opposition that Indira Gandhi practiced electoral fraud to win the 1971 elections because of which there was huge unrest among political parties, student communities and citizens everywhere. People started protest and their agitation led to demand of dissolution of state government first in Gujrat and then later in Bihar. Gujrat’s happened but Bihar’s was refused by central govt.

Raj Narain filed case against Indira Gandhi in Allahabad High Court and in the verdict the then PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi was found guilty of the charges. See moved to supreme court but the decision was upheld by the Apex Court, she was not allowed to vote but she could continue as PM. This happened on 24th June 1975, JP Narain called a huge rally on 25th where he advised police to reject the decision of court and arrest her as the verdict was immoral.

So to save the power and possession of her position the next day she(Indira Gandhi) proposed emergency to president as the incident of 25th June could have led to a mass rebellion. AND THE EMERGENCY WAS DECLARED. The next 19 months were called blackest hours by JP Narain.

Controversial:

It happened in the interest of one person and we know who she was, a hint the then PM.
Any person who opposed or spoke against her was put behind the bars. That was the time that all these big political names like L.K.Advani, Atal Ji, D.P. Tripathi and thousand others spent their time in jail. Anyone who was considered threat was there in prison.
It was absolute anarchy in otherwise Democratic Nation. 
Elections were postponed indefinitely. Satan Gandhi and her parliamentary majorities could rewrite the nation’s laws, since her Congress party had the required mandate to do so – a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. And when she felt the existing laws were ‘too slow’, she got the President to issue ‘Ordinances’ – a law making power in times of urgency, invoked sparingly – completely bypassing the Parliament, allowing her to rule by decree.
In 1976-1977, the program counted 8.3 million sterilizations, up from 2.7 million the previous year.
Detention of people by police without charge or notification of families was a common occurrence. Abuse and torture of detainees and political prisoners was done only for the welfare of the state[sarcasm intended].
Use of public and private media institutions, like the national television network Doordarshan for Govt propaganda.
Constitution was amended and updated for govt’s or rather Indira Satan Gandhi’s benefit multiple times and laws were created overnight which gave her powers way above law.

Conclusion:

The list of evil done can go on but there are no doubts around why they were darkest hours of India. And also why that period was so controversial.

Related articles

• Akali Dal leader’s controversial remarks on Indira Gandhi’s assassination (ndtv.com)