Akhilesh Kumar Singh
“(It is)… a tribute to all those who suffered and fought against the gross misuse of power during the period of Emergency and also recommit people of India to not support in any manner such gross misuse of power in future,” the Union home ministry stated in its gazette notification.
“On June 25, 1975, the then PM Indira Gandhi, in a brazen display of a dictatorial mindset, strangled the soul of our democracy by imposing Emergency on the nation. Lakhs of people were thrown behind bars for no fault of their own, and the voice of the media was silenced,” home minister Amit Shah wrote on X.
BJP has been smarting under the realisation that Congress and other constituents of INDIA bloc managed to hurt the party’s prospects in UP, Maharashtra and Rajasthan in the LS polls by unleashing the “false propaganda” that BJP would change the Constitution to scrap caste quotas if it won over 400 seats. BJP’s own assessment, with which many independent political circles concur, was that the charge was effective in turning a large section of Dalits away from the party and nudging them towards the INDIA bloc.
Shah further said, “The decision made by the govt led by PM Narendra Modi ji is intended to honour the spirit of millions who struggled to revive democracy despite facing inexplicable persecution at the hands of an oppressive govt. The observance of ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’ will help keep the eternal flame of individual freedom and the defence of our democracy alive in every Indian, thus preventing dictatorial forces like the Congress from repeating those horrors.”
BJP’s pushback, which started during the campaign with Modi denying the charge and saying that the boot was on the opposition’s foot by pointing to efforts under Congress govts to bring in quotas for Muslims not allowed under the law, has since continued apace.
President Droupadi Murmu, in her address to the joint sitting of Parliament, made a detailed reference to the Emergency and Modi spoke about it on multiple occasions, including in his customary media address ahead of the Parliament session and also in his reply to the debate on the President’s address.
It can also bring out contradictions among opposition ranks on the issue as some important allies of Congress — from SP and RJD to DMK and CPM — were victims of excesses during Emergency.
On the last day of the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha, they did not join Congress’s protests against the statement read out by Speaker Om Birla to condemn the Emergency.