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PM Modi recalls ‘dark days of Emergency’: ‘Then Congress govt disregarded…’
Posted On 25 Jun 2024
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled the “dark days of Emergency” on Tuesday, paying homage to all those men and women who resisted the imposition by the then-Congress government on June 25, 1975.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Modi wrote, “…DarkDaysOfEmergency remind us of how the Congress Party subverted basic freedoms and trampled over the Constitution of India which every Indian respects greatly.”
In 1975, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi‘s grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared an Emergency, suspending most civil rights for over two years. She eventually called for elections in 1977.PM Modi said 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 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,” the Prime Minister added.
This is not the first time the prime minister has condemned the Emergency. In 2023, on June 18, during the 102nd episode of Mann Ki Baat, PM Modi, had said, “Lakhs of people opposed the Emergency with full might. Supporters of democracy were tortured so much during that time, that even today, it makes the mind tremble”.
1975 Emergency
The Emergency, spanning from 1975 to 1977, was a period marked by the suspension of civil liberties, censorship of the press, and widespread persecution of political opponents under the leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in India.
In a broadcast on All India Radio late on June 25, 1975, Indira Gandhi announced the imposition of Emergency shortly after the Supreme Court stayed the Allahabad High Court’s verdict against her election.
Indira Gandhi had cited a “deep conspiracy” to impose Emergency and initiated widespread arrests of opposition leaders.
Gandhi, who had won decisively in 1971 and led the liberation of Bangladesh, faced growing instability with protests and legal challenges.
The Gujarat Navnirman agitation, Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement, and a railway strike exacerbated tensions. Unperturbed by the stifling of dissent, a galvanised Opposition rallied against her, culminating in mass arrests of leaders including JP, L K Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Morarji Desai.
