‘Indira Gandhi’s declaration of Emergency was a grave attack on Constitution’

 

 

 

National General Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party, Dushyant Gautam, while addressing a press conference on the 50th anniversary of imposition of Emergency in India, strongly criticised the Congress Party and termed June 25, 1975, as a “black day in Indian democracy.” He said the Emergency declared by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was not just a political move, but gravest attack on the Constitution and democratic values of India. Gautam said Emergency was imposed to protect the power of one family, the Nehru-Gandhi family. The Constitution was trampled upon, press freedom was suspended, the judiciary was pressured and civil liberties were crushed. Over 1.4 lakh people were jailed without trial and 22 custodial deaths were reported. Basic rights like the freedom to speak, write and express were locked away and dictatorship replaced democracy.

 

Citing the Allahabad High Court verdict of June 12, 1975, which invalidated Indira Gandhi’s election and barred her from contesting for six years, Gautam said instead of accepting the verdict, she declared an Emergency to hold onto power. Parliament, courts and the streets turned into battlegrounds for truth and freedom. Thousands of activists, journalists and citizens protested. The Rajya Sabha Member accused Congress of turning the nation into a prison to save Indira Gandhi’s chair. He said without consulting the Cabinet, she got the Emergency approved by the President at midnight.

 

This reflects the Congress mindset, family first, Constitution later. The infamous slogan ‘India is Indira’ exposed the party’s undemocratic ideology, he added. Gautam further said Congress’s anti-democratic tendencies are deeply rooted. From forcing Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to resign as Congress President, denying Sardar Patel the Prime Minister’s post, to constantly undermining Dr B R Ambedkar, the party’s history is full of authoritarianism. He said Congress amended the Constitution 75 times, often to strengthen its own grip on power, misused Article 356 90 times to dismiss elected state governments and tampered with judicial appointments, notably in 1973, when seniority was bypassed in appointing the Chief Justice. He called the MISA Act during Emergency a tool of injustice, where thousands were imprisoned without reason. He alleged that the Shah Bano case, where Rajiv Gandhi overturned a Supreme Court verdict for appeasement politics and called it an insult to Muslim women’s rights and the Constitution. Criticizing Rahul Gandhi, Gautam said waving a copy of the Constitution in Parliament is hypocrisy when the same Congress tore up a parliamentary ordinance in 2013.

 

He said Congress talks of saving the Constitution but has always crushed it when in power. In contrast, he praised the Modi government for upholding and implementing constitutional values. Schemes like PM Awas Yojana, Ujjwala and Jan Dhan are not just programs, they are living examples of the spirit of the Constitution reaching the grassroots, he said. While Congress weakened the Constitution for power, Modi’s government is taking its values to every citizen. State PWD Minister Rakesh Singh, District President Ratnesh Sonkar, MLA Ashok Rohani and Mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh were also present on the occasion.