From Nehru to Modi: How Indian Leaders Responded to Economic Emergencies

His seven-point call urging Indians to reduce unnecessary fuel consumption, revive work-from-home models, reduce gold purchase, among other preventive measures, is aimed to keep the country strong against global headwinds.

Though India has not yet bore the brunt as severely as many other countries, several nations have tightened their belts as uncertainty looms in West Asia.

For countries like India, which imports almost 85 per cent of its crude, price increase will precipitate into inflation across travel, foodstuff, logistics, and other necessary consumption.

In similar emergencies earlier, India's ruling dispensation urged caution, sometimes enforcing tough measures.

During the 1962 war with China, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had asked Indians to donate their gold when the economy was reeling under pressure.

He appealed to citizens to reduce gold purchases, further launching a nationwide campaign asking residents to donate jewellery to the national war chest.

Women across India surrendered their ornaments, even "mangalsutras", with the Union government calling it a patriotic campaign.

More than $220 million was collected in cash alone through this mass mobilisation of personal wealth in a national crisis.

The Gold Control Act of 1962 imposed sweeping restrictions on its ownership and trade.

Banks were ordered to recall gold loans, and forward its trading was banned outright.

By 1963, producing jewellery above 14 carat was a criminal act.

In 1965, a gold bond scheme was launched with tax immunity for unaccounted wealth. However, it failed to yield much.

Five years later, the Gold Control Act was further intensified with citizens legally prohibited from owning gold bars or coins.

Goldsmiths could hold no more than 100 grams at any time.

Licensed dealers were banned from trading with each other.

Analysts recount the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi telling people in 1967 to not to buy gold in order to avert financial stress and maintain foreign exchange reserves following a fiscal pressure after the 1965 Pakistan war and a drought leading to famine.

The Union government's finances were under severe strain at that time. Between March and June 2013, the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet had made four separate appeals for citizens to stop buying gold.

India's current account deficit had hit a record 5.4 per cent of GDP with gold imports being a primary driver.

Chidambaram appealed to citizens "hoping" they "will not demand so much gold" so as to control imports.

Additionally, successive governments have addressed food shortages by asking people to change their eating habits fundamentally, as in the early 1950s.

Some observers even recall Nehru having urged especially those in India's North, who are accustomed to wheat, to refrain completely from rice so that others may get it.

During the 1965 war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked every Indian to skip one meal every Monday, leading by example.

India was in food distress that time, and hunger had to be urged as a civic duty.

During the last United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, former Prime Minister late Manmohan Singh had pointed out "Money does not grow on trees", that insulating the public from rising world fuel prices would cost the exchequer more than Rs 2 lakh crore in subsidies.

"Where will we find the money for this?" he asked.

Despite such precedence, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has termed the Prime Minister Modi's appeal an "admission of failure", alleging that people were being told what to buy, where to travel, and how to spend.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief Arvind Kejriwal sought to know if it served as a "harbinger of economic emergency".

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, quoting history, allege that the Congress follows a "routine" of opposing the Prime Minister while calling the antecedents "economic policy".

It is to avoid such pressing times that Prime Minister Modi is appealing before it becomes too late, they add.

- IANS