Emergency-imposing mindset very much alive in Congress: PM Modi slams Opposition

India is marking the 49th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi-led Congress government on June 25, 1975. PM Narendra Modi slammed the grand old party and countered the bloc, INDIA, led by them for its Constitution narrative on the first day of the parliament session of the 18th Lok Sabha.

"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," PM Modi said.

Intensifying his attack on Congress, PM Modi, Tuesday further said: "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."

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On Monday, at the beginning of the new session of the parliament, PM Modi said: "The new generation should 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.

Responding to PM Modi's remarks on Monday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Prime Minister is talking about the 50-year-old Emergency but has forgotten the "undeclared Emergency of the last 10 years".

"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," PM Modi said.

The Prime Minister further said, "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."

Emergency in India

In the year 1975, on June 25, then PM Indira Gandhi declared Emergency in the country with an announcement made through All India Radio (AIR). The following two years witnessed widespread arrests, the press being heavily censored and a severe curtailment of civil liberties to India’s millions of citizens.

Also Read: 49 years of Emergency: India’s darkest hour, in graphics

It happened after the Allahabad High Court, on June 12, 1975, found Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractice and disqualified her from parliament for six years.

On June 24 the same year, the Supreme Court stayed the Allahabad HC order and the very next day she declared Emergency.