Country facing 'worse than Emergency days': Yashwant Sinha

Addressing a gathering at the Samajwadi Party office to mark the birth anniversary of Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan, Sinha said, "The situation today in the country is worse than the Emergency days. And it is the duty of all of us to unite and fight this challenge. We have to continue our struggle."

"The conventions of democracy, the institutes of democracy and the democracy itself are in danger. I want to say it with all seriousness that if we do not wake up, there will be immense loss for the country in the coming days," Sinha stressed.

He also exuded confidence that if the opposition unity is forged before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, akin to that in 1977, "we will win the polls".

"The time has come to wage a war against Duryodhan and Dushshashan," he added, referring to the Mahabharata characters.

Attacking the Centre, the former Union minister said, "In the Cabinet, the prime minister is only the first amongst the equals. The Rafale deal was signed, but the defence minister did not know that it was about to happen."

"The demonetisation was about to take place, but the finance minister did not know about it. He came to know about it in the Cabinet meeting. The President's Rule was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir, but the Union home minister did not know that it was about to happen," said Sinha.

Referring to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as a "bechari"(hapless) minister, Sinha said, "The foreign minister seldom accompanies the Prime Minister on his foreign trips and many people say she is a twitter minister or visa minister."

Referring to his tenure as external affairs minister, Sinha said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on the contrary, always consulted him before embarking on a foreign tour.

Lauding former Prime Minister Lal Bahdur Shastri, Sinha said he never "advertised his poverty." "

"We know about his childhood days, and the poverty and the struggle he faced," he added.

Speaking at the function, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said, "Jai Prakash Narayan had given the clarion call of Sampoorna Kranti (total revolution). This resulted in sending tremors in the corridors of power in Delhi. And with Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha, giving the call, there will be 'sampoorna safaaya' (complete annihilation of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls) in the entire country including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar."

Yadav said the BJP leaders will go off the television screens very soon after loosing the next Lok Sabha elections.

"People of the country are only waiting for the announcement of the polling dates. I and you do not know the poll dates, but those in the power know it," he said.

He also urged the prime minister to break his "silence" over attacks on migrant labourers from Bihar and UP in Gujarat.

Former UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan too was present at the programme.