âEmergency Was a Mistake,â Says Rahul Gandhi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the Emergency was "wrong", but it was fundamentally different from the current scenario as the Congress did not attempt to capture the country's institutional framework. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Photo: PTI Rights03/Mar/2021 New Delhi: Terming the Emergency that was imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi a “mistake”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said what happened during that period was “wrong”, but it was fundamentally different from the current scenario as the Congress at no point attempted to capture the country’s institutional framework. In a conversation with Kaushik Basu, professor at Cornell University in the US and India’s former chief economic advisor, Gandhi said he is all for internal democracy in the Congress, which fought for India’s independence, gave the country its Constitution and stood for equality.