PM attacks Congress on Emergency's 50th mark

Notes on a dark chapter

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

NEW DELHI: No Indian will ever forget the excesses imposed during the Emergency when the spirit of the Constitution was violated and ordinary citizens jailed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he took shots at the Congress on the 50th anniversary of the dark period.

The Union Cabinet, presided by Modi, adopted a resolution against the Emergency and resolved to commemorate and honour the sacrifices of countless individuals who resisted the measure. It also observed a two-minute silence as a mark of tribute to them.

"Today marks fifty years since one of the darkest chapters in India's democratic history, the imposition of the Emergency. The people of India mark this day as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas," Modi said on X.

"On this day, the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution were set aside, fundamental rights were suspended, press freedom was extinguished and several political leaders, social workers, students and ordinary citizens were jailed. It was as if the Congress government in power at that time placed democracy under arrest!" he added.

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 electoral defeat for Gandhi and the first non-Congress government at the Centre. Modi said that during the Emergency, fundamental rights were suspended, press freedom extinguished and a large number of political leaders, social workers, students and ordinary citizens jailed.