Imposers of Emergency Have No Right to Show Love for Constitution: Modi
New Delhi: With the Opposition bloc projecting itself as the protector of the Indian Constitution, the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday marked the 49th anniversary of the Emergency, calling it the "dark days". Hitting out at the Congress, Modi said that the 1975-77 Emergency is a reminder of how the party, when in power, subverted freedoms and trampled over the Constitution. He cautioned that the mindset that led to the imposition of the Emergency is "very much alive among the same party that imposed it".
Taking a dig at the Congress and I.N.D.I.A. bloc members who took oaths in the Lok Sabha holding a copy of the Constitution, the BJP said "holding the Constitution in hand is not enough; upholding the values enshrined in the Constitution is needed."
"Today is a day to pay homage to all those great men and women who resisted the Emergency. The #DarkDaysOfEmergency reminds us of how the Congress party subverted basic freedoms and trampled over the Constitution of India, which every Indian respects greatly... Just to cling on to power, 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," posted Mr Modi on his social media platform.
Noting that those who imposed the Emergency have "no right to profess their love for our Constitution", Mr Modi said, "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."
Slamming the Congress, the Prime Minister said the mindset that led to the imposition of the Emergency is very much alive among the same party that 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 PM wrote.
Addressing an event at the BJP headquarters, party president J.P. Nadda said those who insulted and ignored the Constitution several times have declared themselves the protectors of the Constitution. He also slammed the Opposition for fielding its MP K. Suresh against the NDA's Om Birla for election to the office of Lok Sabha Speaker.
Attacking the Congress and its former president Rahul Gandhi, Union home minister Amit Shah said that the party and its "yuvraj" have forgotten that Indira Gandhi had imposed the Emergency. He said that Gandhi's father Rajiv Gandhi had said in Parliament on July 23, 1985, that "there is nothing wrong with an Emergency".
"The Congress crushed the spirit of our Constitution several times for the sake of maintaining a certain family in power. Indira Gandhi unleashed ruthless atrocities on the people of India during the Emergency," Shah wrote on X.
The Union home minister added: "Rajiv Gandhi even said, 'If any Prime Minister of this country feels that an Emergency is necessary under these circumstances and does not apply the Emergency, he is not fit to be the Prime Minister of this country'. This very act of taking pride in a dictatorial act shows that nothing else is dear to the Congress other than the family and power."
Accusing the Congress of having an "Emergency DNA," Union minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar said, "Holding the Constitution in hand is not enough; upholding the values enshrined in the Constitution is needed. Nobody has mocked the Constitution more than Congress. Even as we speak in the Congress-ruled states, cases are filed against journalists, curbing freedom of speech... The latest mandate of the people is proof that the BJP-led NDA has given good governance."