Fact checking Kangana Ranaut's Emergency teaser: Did Indira Gandhi ever say 'Indira is India'?

The (new) release date announcement of Kangana Ranaut’s directorial debut Emergency was released on Saturday afternoon. The film sees Kangana essay te role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and, as the name suggests, is set around the dark period of Emergency from 1975-77. The new video gave some glimpses of Kangana as Indira as well as Anupam Kher as Jayaprakash Narayan.

The factual error in Emergency teaser

The small teaser video of Emergency opens with a visual of violence on the streets before cutting back to a headline from June 26, which exclaims that emergency has been proclaimed. We then hear Anupam Kher’s voice (he plays JP in the film) that how this Emergency is an attack on democracy and actual dictatorship. We see visuals of extra judicial killings and opposition leaders being arrested, apart from a media blackout. The video then cuts to Kangana Ranaut as Indira, who can be heard saying, “Mujhe is desh ki raksha karne se koi nahi rok sakta (nobody can prevent me from saving this country) because India is Indira and Indira is India.” However, the big error is that these lines were not uttered by the former PM herself.

Who said ‘India is Indira and Indira is India’?

The proclamation "India is Indira. Indira is India." was indeed made, but not by Mrs Gandhi. It was said in 1974 by the then President of the Indian ational Congress DK Barooah (also written as Baruah). The statement, which was meant to show Barooah’s loyalty for the PM, was criticised by the opposition as sycophancy. Interestingly, after Emergency, Barooah left Congress and joined Congress (Urs), which was later renamed as INC (Socialist). The line was used by Indira Gandhi’s supporters during the Emergency as mark of her significance for the country but was never uttered by the PM herself, at least not on record. The makers of Emergency have clearly taken some creative liberties for dramatic effect.

Emergency release date and cast details

The film Emergency not only stars Kangana as Indira Gandhi but also marks the National Award-winning actress’ directorial debut. The film also stars Anupam Kher as JP, Shreyas Talpade as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mahima Chaudhary as Pupul Jaykar, Milind Soman as Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw, Vishak Nair as Sanjay Gandhi, and Satis Kaushik (in his final performance) as Jagjivan Ram. The film, which was slated to be released in October, will now release in theatres on November 24, 2023.