L.K. Advani about press censorship during the Emergency. Quoted in NYT, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/opinion/Indias-Press-Under-Siege.html . Full quote: When Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister, declared a state of emergency on June 25, 1975, she immediately imposed strict censorship of the press. With defiant exceptions, much of the press caved in quickly to the new rules, prompting L.K. Advani, one of the founders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was jailed during the emergency, to comment later: “You were merely asked to bend, but you chose to crawl.”
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You were merely asked to bend, but you chose to crawl.

— L. K. Advani

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "You were merely asked to bend, but you chose to crawl." in the context of "L.K. Advani about press censorship during the Emergency. Quoted in NYT, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/opinion/Indias-Press-Under-Siege.html . Full quote: When Indira Gandhi, India’s prime minister, declared a state of emergency on June 25, 1975, she immediately imposed strict censorship of the press. With defiant exceptions, much of the press caved in quickly to the new rules, prompting L.K. Advani, one of the founders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was jailed during the emergency, to comment later: “You were merely asked to bend, but you chose to crawl.”" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "L. K. Advani" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
L. K. Advani

About L. K. Advani

Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) known as L. K. Advani is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.