NEW DELHI: Representatives of six non-Communist Opposition parties today [June 16] urged Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to direct Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to relinquish her office as she had forfeited the legal and moral right to be head of Government following the adverse verdict of the Allahabad High Court. In a memorandum submitted to the President … the Opposition leaders also criticised the “crude Populist methods adopted by Mrs Gandhi to foment agitations against the judgement”, and said the rule of law had “actually disappeared from Delhi as the matter was being taken from the court to the street under her direct … guidance”.

Before meeting the President today the Op­­position leaders have been staging a kind of “sit-in” outside the main gate of the Presid­ential Palace. The memorandum said the re­­moval of Mrs Gandhi was necessary to up­­hold the honour of this country to protect and defend the dignity, independence and impartiality of the judiciary and administration from personal influence and impasse. It said that although the operation of the High Cou­rt judgement had been stayed on the specific appeals of Mrs Gandhi’s counsel … [she] was “misusing the stay order”.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2025