India Never Bows to Dictatorship

Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the Emergency imposed 50 years ago shook the very foundations of democracy but India overcame that dark chapter because the nation never bows down to dictatorship.

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

NEW DELHI:

Shah took potshots at the Opposition, particularly the Congress party for accusing the ruling dispensation of disregarding the sanctity of the Constitution, and said the party's leaders should answer whether they were rakshaks (protectors) of the Constitution or bhakshaks (destroyers) when Emergency was imposed.

"Remember the morning when Indira Gandhi announced the Emergency on All India Radio. Was Parliament consulted before this? Were the opposition leaders and citizens taken into confidence... Those who talk about protecting democracy today — were you rakshaks (protectors) of the Constitution back then, or its bhakshaks (destroyers)?" Shah said.

Speaking at an event organised by the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Foundation to mark the 50th anniversary of Emergency that was imposed by the then Congress government led by Indira Gandhi, Shah said it cannot be defined in a single sentence. "...It was the biggest tragedy of independent India."