Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday fired emotional barbs at the opposition – which has often accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of orchestrating an “undeclared emergency” – by revealing he had been barred from attending his mother’s funeral while in prison during the Emergency.

Speaking exclusively to news agency ANI, Mr Singh lashed out at the opposition for making “allegations of dictatorship against us… (when they should) look within”, and said he was only 24 years old – and had just been married – when the police arrived at his home late one night to take him into custody.

‘”I returned home after working the whole day (and) was told the police had come. They told me there is a warrant… it was around midnight when I was taken to jail and kept in solitary confinement,” he recounted.