Amid mounting criticism over a whole range of controversies, including widespread paper leaks and cancelled exams, the BJP scrambled to deflect attention by resurrecting memories of the Emergency. During the first Parliament session following the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders flooded social media with posts commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi’s Congress government on June 25, 1975.
“Today is a day to pay homage to all those great men and women who resisted the Emergency. The #DarkDaysOfEmergency remind us of how the Congress Party subverted basic freedoms and trampled over the Constitution of India which every Indian respects greatly,” the Prime Minister posted on X today.
“Just to cling on to power, the then Congress Government disregarded every democratic principle and made the nation into a jail. Any person who disagreed with the Congress was tortured and harassed. Socially regressive policies were unleashed to target the weakest sections.
“Those who imposed the Emergency have no right to profess their love for our Constitution. These are the same people who have imposed Article 356 on innumerable occasions, got a Bill to destroy press freedom, destroyed federalism and violated every aspect of the Constitution,” he said.
Attacking the Congress, the main opposition party in the Parliament, PM Modi said that the “mindset which led to the imposition of the Emergency is very much alive among the same Party which imposed it”. “They hide their disdain for the Constitution through their tokenism, but the people of India have seen through their antics and that is why they have rejected them time and again,” he said.
PM Modi was joined by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who wrote that the Congress has a history of “murdering democracy”.
“The Emergency imposed in 1975 is its biggest example.” The Congress, he said, suspended citizens’ all rights for 21 months to stay in power. “They imposed censorship on the media, changed the Constitution and tied the hands of the court,” he wrote on X.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh added, “If democracy has survived in this country, the credit goes to those who fought for it, went to jail and suffered physical and mental agony.”
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari praised those “who opposed the dictatorial Emergency and re-established democracy”.
The Congress’s “politically driven decision to impose a state of Emergency shook the very pillars of our democracy and tried to trample over the Constitution”, said Health Minister JP Nadda.
“During this period, those who today claim to be guardians of Indian democracy left no effort to suppress voices raised in defence of constitutional values,” he added, taking a swipe at the main Opposition party.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the excesses during Emergency such as forced mass sterilisation, press censorship and suspension of constitutional rights.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recalled “the dark period for Indian democracy and the courage shown by those who resisted that challenge”. “The collective response of the nation defined our generation. It will remain a constant reminder of the need to keep working to protect, preserve and fight for our democracy,” he said.
The Prime Minister laid the groundwork for the united offensive on Monday during his media address at the start of the new session when he said that June 25 marks 50 years of a dark chapter in Indian democracy.
“The new generation will not forget how the Indian Constitution was scrapped, the country turned into a jail and democracy captured. In this 50th anniversary, the country will take a pledge that never again will it happen,” he said yesterday.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge returned fire pointing out that while the Prime Minister talks about the 50-year-old Emergency, he has conveniently forgotten the “undeclared Emergency of the last 10 years”.
On Monday, the Opposition showcased their commitment to “protecting the Constitution,” a central theme of their Lok Sabha election campaign, as MPs from the INDIA bloc brought copies of the Constitution to the parliament and raised them as NDA members took their oaths.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “We will not allow the attack on the Constitution that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are doing. This attack is not acceptable to us.”
