Thread by @AbhishBanerj

This day in 1969, Indira Gandhi's govt seized all banks in India

22 years since independence, Cong policies had made India even poorer than in 1947

Cong began process of finding scapegoats

In classic dictator style, they said people had no money because banks took it all

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Indira Gandhi then brought Manmohan Singh as Chief Economic Adviser to turn India into hard Communist state

They said Gareebi Hatao

Next step was to blame rich people.

So Indira-Manmohan team raised top tax rate to 98%

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Next scapegoat was middle class people

So Indira Manmohan team brought "compulsory deposit scheme" and locked away much of the money common people had

But India was still getting poorer

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Next step was to seize the food supply

They said people are hungry because rich merchants stole all the wheat.

So Indira-Manmohan team seized the wheat distribution.

Still nothing improved

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Next step was to blame "foreign investors," of course

Nothing was fault of Congress. Everything was due to foreign investors "looting" India.

So Indira Manmohan team slapped huge regulation on foreign investors

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But nothing worked. Inflation soared to 28%. GDP growth was down to 1%

Then, the final step was taken.

Imposing Emergency.

India is Indira, they said.

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