Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, former PM Indira Gandhi had imposed the Emergency on June 25, 1975.
A day after the INDIA bloc mounted a massive protest inside the Parliament premises against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said those who imposed the Emergency have no right to profess their love for the Constitution. On the 49th anniversary of the imposition of the Emergency, PM Modi said the dark days showed how the Congress subverted basic freedoms and trampled over the Constitution.
“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,” he wrote on X.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, former PM Indira Gandhi had imposed the Emergency on June 25, 1975, after which most civil rights remained suspended for over two years. She announced elections in 1977.
PM Modi said the then Congress government had disregarded “every democratic principle and made the nation a jail”.
He said those who disagreed with the Congress were tortured during the Emergency, and socially regressive policies were unleashed.
“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,” PM Modi added.
“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,” he added.
On Monday, INDIA bloc leaders staged a protest by holding out copies of the Constitution inside the Parliament premises. Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and DMK M Kanimozhi were among several Opposition leaders who took part in the protest.
As PM Modi took oath as the member of the Lok Sabha later, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi displayed a copy of the Constitution.
Posting an 8-second clip of the incident on X, the Congress later said, “The INDIA alliance will protect the constitution at the cost of its life.”
Meanwhile, union home minister Amit Shah said the episode is the biggest example of the Congress’s long history of attempts to kill democracy.