New Delhi, Mar 7: The forced sterilisation campaign during 1975-77 occurred because North Indian Chief Ministers saw a “rising force” in Sanjay Gandhi, who led mass vasectomy and tubectomy drives in an extra-constitutional capacity, veteran politician Karan Singh said on Friday.
Karan Singh, Union Minister of Health and Family Planning from 1973 to 1977, said he had initially set “very reasonable targets” for sterilisation, but Sanjay Gandhi increased them.
Speaking at the launch of his authorised biography A Statesman and A Seeker by Harbans Singh, Singh was joined by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and historian Malvika Singh.
“There were, in those days, certain targets for vasectomies and tubectomies that began from Rajkumari Amrit Kaur’s time. When I became Minister, I set very reasonable and doable targets,” the 94-year-old said.
“Unfortunately, Sanjay Gandhi started raising the targets, and all the North Indian Chief Ministers, seeing him as a rising force, went overboard trying to improve their numbers. That is when forced tubectomies took place,” he added.
Singh said he wrote to the Chief Ministers upon receiving reports of forced sterilisation, warning them against it. “I wrote letters saying I’m getting reports that force is being used. ‘Please ensure this doesn’t happen.’ My letters are on record. The Shah Commission reviewed these letters, which is why I was exonerated. I clearly stated that no force should be used—it goes against policy,” he said.
He also claimed he never shared a stage with Sanjay Gandhi during his tenure.
Talking about Indira Gandhi’s defeat in the 1977 election after the Emergency, Singh said he was among the few Congress MPs to win at that time. “After Emergency, there was tremendous anti-Indira Gandhi sentiment. I was one of only three Congress MPs from North India who won. That, I consider my greatest electoral success, because people realised who was responsible for the ‘zyadatees’ (excesses),” he added. (Agency)
