New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday played remarks of leading anti-Emergency politicians in his monthly radio broadcast to slam the then Congress government for atrocities on people, and said they should always be remembered as they inspire people to stay alert to keep the Constitution strong.
Speaking in his Mann Ki Baat programme, Modi said those who imposed the Emergency not only murdered the Constitution but also made the judiciary their puppet.
His condemnation of the Congress for the Emergency-era excesses without naming the party or the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, came amid an ongoing bitter war of words between the ruling BJP and opposition parties, which have claimed that an undeclared Emergency prevails under the Modi government.
Modi said in his address that with the power of public participation, big crises can be confronted.
He said, “I will play an audio for you. In this audio, you will get an idea of? The magnitude of that crisis. How grave that crisis was.”
In the audio, Morarji Desai, the prime minister after the Emergency, said the “oppression” of the Indira Gandhi regime was going on for several years but reached its peak in the last two years after the Emergency was imposed.
Desai said, “People’s right to freedom was snatched away, newspapers were left without freedom. Courts were made completely powerless. And the way more than one lakh people were put in jail and then arbitrary rule continued, it is difficult to find its traces in the history of the world.”
Modi said in the broadcast that people were tortured on a large scale during the Emergency for the 21-month period between 1975 and 1977. There are countless examples of atrocities against people that cannot be forgotten, he added.
He also played bits of speeches of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and former deputy PM Jagjivan Ram related to the period.
George Fernandes was shackled; he noted and recalled that anyone could be arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) at that time.
Students were harassed and freedom of expression throttled, he added.
Thousands of people were arrested and subjected to inhuman treatment, but it is the strength of Indians that they did now bow and accept any compromise with democracy, he said.
People finally won, the Emergency was lifted, and those who imposed it lost, he said.
Noting that the 50th anniversary of the Emergency was commemorated recently as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’, he said those who fought against it must always be remembered.
The Emergency was imposed June 25, 1975, by the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi.
After the defeat of the Indira Gandhi government in 1977, Vajpayee said, according to the audio, “Whatever happened in the country cannot be called just an election. A peaceful revolution has taken place. The wave of people’s power has thrown the killers of democracy into the dustbin of history.”
Modi said, “We should always remember all those people who fought the Emergency with fortitude. This inspires us to remain constantly vigilant to keep our Constitution strong and enduring.”
PTI
