45th anniversary of Emergency: Modi, BJP launch attack on Cong, Gandhis

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 25 

Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP on Thursday lashed out at the Congress on the 45th anniversary of Emergency, reminding it of all the “excesses” during the period.

Prime Minister Modi paid homage to all those who participated in the “struggle to protect democracy, withstanding all torture.”

“The country will not be able to forget their sacrifices,” the Prime Minister said in his post on social media.

Top BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda, remembered those who resisted “anti-democratic forces” and slammed the “dynastic grip and totalitarian mindset” of the Congress party.

The BJP also posted a blog by late Arun Jaitley, ‘The Emergency Revisited: The circumstances leading to the imposition of Emergency’.

आज से ठीक 45 वर्ष पहले देश पर आपातकाल थोपा गया था। उस समय भारत के लोकतंत्र की रक्षा के लिए जिन लोगों ने संघर्ष किया, यातनाएं झेलीं, उन सबको मेरा शत-शत नमन! उनका त्याग और बलिदान देश कभी नहीं भूल पाएगा। pic.twitter.com/jlQVJQVrsX

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 25, 2020

In a post, ‘Emergency 1975- The unforgivable sin of Congress’, it also talked of “forcible sterilization (the dreaded nasbandi) that created a strong terror wave throughout the country”.

“Millions of helpless people were subjected to forcible sterilisation and many lost their lives.

“RSS defied the ban imposed on it and thousands participated in Satyagraha (peaceful protests) against the ban and against the curtailment of fundamental rights.

“According to a report of the International Human Rights Organisation, 1, 40, 000 people were arrested without trial during then Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Emergency.

“Before the President’s signature on the declaration papers, top national leaders like JP Narayan, Morarji Desai, LK Advani and AB Vajpayee along with hundreds of others had been imprisoned overnight,” it said.

As one of India’s opposition parties, Congress needs to ask itself:

Why does the Emergency mindset remain?

Why are leaders who don’t belong to 1 dynasty unable to speak up?

Why are leaders getting frustrated in Congress?

Else, their disconnect with people will keep widening.

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) June 25, 2020

According to Shah, “On this day, 45 years ago one family’s greed for power led to the imposition of the Emergency. Overnight the nation was turned into a prison. The press, courts, free speech…all were trampled over. Atrocities were committed on the poor and downtrodden.

“Due to efforts of lakhs of people, the Emergency was lifted. Democracy was restored in India but it remained absent in the Congress. The interests of one family prevailed over party interests and national interests. This sorry state of affairs thrives in today’s Congress too!”

Union Minister Piyush Goyal called Emergency “the darkest period in independent India’s history” while his counterpart Jitendra Singh wrote, “History will always recall it as a black day of Indian democracy….”.