Memories of Emergency must remain alive so it's not repeated

Memories of the Emergency must be kept alive so that there can be no such imposition of dictatorial rule in the country again, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday as he joined other central ministers and BJP leaders in slamming a "dark chapter in the history of post-Independence India" on its 50th anniversary.

- HT Correspondents

NEW DELHI:

Speaking at the launch of The Emergency Diaries: The Years That Forged A Leader—a book recounting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role in the fight against Emergency, with a foreword by former PM HD Deve Gowda—Shah said the country will never forget the injustice and atrocities committed by the Congress during the Emergency.

"Today, we have gathered here to remember a dark chapter in the history of post-Independence India. We must keep the memories of the Emergency alive so that it is never repeated, and so that the youth of the nation grow up cultured and organised," he said.

Hailing Modi for working underground as a 24-year-old RSS worker disguised as a sadhu, a sardarji, a hippie, an incense stick seller and a newspaper vendor, Shah said: "PM Modi worked underground disguised as a sadhu, a sardarji, a hippie, an incense stick seller or a newspaper vendor."

Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency on June 25, 1975 after an Allahabad high court voided her election from Rae Bareli in 1971 on account of electoral malpractices, and the Supreme Court refused to fully suspend the landmark decision. The 21-month-long period was marked by repression and the jailing of political dissidents, and culminated in a resounding defeat for Gandhi and the first non-Congress government at the Centre.