Patna: Even as the stalling of the screening of a film on Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan by Doordarshan led into a major controversy, RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) president Laloo Prasad today (Oct 16, 2004) categorically denied ever having defended emergency.

"I never defended the emergency. I only said the Indira Gandhi Government had to go not because of the emergency but due to forcible sterilisation that was unauthorisedly undertaken at that time," he told reporters while reacting to the charge made by some of his comrade-in-arms of the JP-led movement.

Some news reports had yesterday (Oct 15, 2004) quoted the RJD president and Railway Minister as having said that forced sterilisation and not the emergency had led to the fall of the Indira Gandhi regime.

Shivanand Tiwari, RJD MLA and former minister in the Rabri Devi cabinet, in a press statement charged the RJD leader with trying to defend the emergency "as if the forced sterilisation were not part of the excesses committed at that time".

"Laloo should take lesson from Indira Gandhi's grandson Rahul, himself a Congress MP, who has admitted that excesses were committed during the emergency. If Laloo Prasad has not learnt anything from JP, he should learn from Rahul. Had there been no JP movement there would have been no Laloo, Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi or myself," he said.

Sushil Kumar Modi, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) vice president and MP, in another statement said, "I would not be surprised if Laloo terms even JP as communal as the latter had taken the RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) help during his movement against the emergency."

Modi, who was the general secretary of the Patna university students union at the time of the movement and Laloo was its president, alleged that the later was even contemplating to join the Congress to escape arrest but, in the meantime, elections were called by Indira Gandhi.

Reacting to the charge by Tiwari and Modi, Laloo said, "I, being in the hub of the students' movement know how the BJP and its frontal organisations betrayed JP.

The BJP and Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad did not take part in the fill the jail campaign launched by JP. Lok Nayak wanted Jagjivan Ram as the Prime Minister after the Congress' defeat but the BJP did not agree. Have these things found a place in the film?" he asked.

He described Prakash Jha, the maker of the documentary on JP as a person in the habit of creating controversies. "He has no knowledge of the JP movement and the emergency."

The State-owned broadcaster Prasar Bharati had shelved the screening of the documentary scheduled for telecast by DD on JP's birth anniversary on October 11 and reportedly asked Jha to make certain changes in it incorporating the point of view of those who supported emergency to present a balanced picture.