A message doing the rounds on social media claimed that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, during the Emergency in 1975, entered the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus along with Delhi police, beat up the then students’ union leader Sitaram Yechury, who was also the president of the JNU students' union, forced him to quit the post and made him read out a letter of apology.

A picture of Sitaram Yechury reading out something standing near Indira Gandhi and the police was also circulated along with the message. The message also claimed that “this is how the iron woman of India handled the Communists” and “compared to this, Home Minister Amit Shah is a saint.”

Former Infosys CEO Mohandas Pai had tweeted the message. 

However, this message is fake.

The picture being circulated was not taken during the Emergency. The Emergency was repealed in January 1977 and the picture was taken in September 1977. Indira Gandhi was not the Prime Minister at that time. Also, the campus shown in the picture is not the JNU campus. Fact-checking website Alt News had also published a detailed note about this.

Though Indira Gandhi lost power in the elections that were held post the Emergency, she continued as the Chancellor of JNU. The picture circulated along with the message is that of the students' agitations against that. 

In the picture, Sitaram Yechury is reading out a memorandum demanding Indira Gandhi's resignation from the Chancellor post. This happened not on the JNU campus, but outside Indira Gandhi’s residence.

Yechury was not beaten up by the Delhi police either. He also told India Today that the message is fake.