India, Jan. 25 -- Like Nasbandi in Emergency, opinion polling made arduous by false propaganda.

Nasbandi scare spread like the proverbial wildfire among Muslims during Indira Gandhi's Emergency, turning the entire community viciously against her. Though there were only a few stray cases of forcible sterilization in Haryana, and on a much smaller scale in the neighbouring states, due to malicious propaganda unleashed by mullahs and maulvis, almost to the last Muslim came to believe that Indira's wayward son, Sanjay Gandhi, was out to sterilise the entire community. Communal colour was given to the sterilisation drive. Family planning was an eyewash, the real objective was to control the steadily rising proportion of Muslims in the popula...