NEW DELHI: Union health minister JP Nadda on Tuesday recalled the
emergency
period and said that democracy is standing strongly today because of the sacrifices made at that time.
Addressing the ‘Dark Days of Democracy’ program on Emergency’s 49th anniversary, Nadda said, “I request all of you to meet those who have seen the emergency and try to know what the situation was…
Because of the sacrifices made at that time, democracy is standing strongly today…”
He also recalled the Allahabad high court’s decision where it found the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty over discrepancies in the electoral campaign. Later that day, the Supeme Court ruled that MP privileges no longer applied to Gandhi, who was barred from voting but allowed to continue as PM.
Earlier Nadda took his X account and tweeted that those who claim to be the guardians of Indian democracy today had spared no efforts to suppress the voices raised in the defence of constitutional values.
“During this period, those who today claim to be guardians of Indian democracy left no effort to suppress voices raised in defense of constitutional values,” Nadda said.
“I am proud that our Party belongs to that tradition which resisted the Emergency tooth and nail and worked to protect democracy,” he added.
PM Modi also launched a fierce broadside at the
Congress
and said the grand old party turned the country into “jail” and any person who disagreed with the then Congress government was “tortured and harassed”.
“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,” PM wrote on X.
“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” he added.
Hitting back at the Congress over the “dictatorship” and “authoritarian” charges, PM Modi said, “These are the same people who imposed Article 356 (President’s rule) on innumerable occasions”.
“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,” the PM said.
Carrying on the attack on the Congress, the PM said the party is hiding its “disdain for the Constitution” through its “tokenism”.
“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,” PM Modi wrote.
(With inputs from agency)
