Centre to mark Emergency; Opposition hits out
The Congress called the move yet another “headline grabbing exercise in hypocrisy”.
The Centre has decided to observe June 25 as “Samvidhan Hatya Divas (Constitution Murder Day)” every year in remembrance of the Emergency imposed by the Congress in 1975, Union home minister Amit Shah announced on Friday, triggering a sharp reaction from the Congress, which called the move yet another “headline grabbing exercise in hypocrisy”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the day will serve as a reminder of the “conditions the country had to go through after the Constitution was crushed”, even as other members of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) of opposition parties rallied behind the Congress and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “murdering the Constitution everyday”.
In the run-up to the elections, the Congress and other opposition parties accused the BJP of setting a target to win 400 out of 543 seats to change the Constitution and do away with caste-based quotas – a claim which was dismissed by Modi and the ruling party.
Also Read | 'Congress unleashed dark phase': PM Modi on Samvidhan Hatya Diwas
In a post on X, Shah said “Samvidhan Hatya Divas” will commemorate the “massive contributions” of those who endured inhuman pains of the Emergency, which marked its 49th anniversary this year. It will also prevent “dictatorial forces” like the Congress from “repeating those horrors”, he said.
“On June 25, 1975, the then PM Indira Gandhi, in a brazen display of a dictatorial mindset, strangled the soul of our democracy by imposing the Emergency on the nation. Lakhs of people were thrown behind bars for no fault of their own, and the voice of the media was silenced,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site.
“The Government of India has decided to celebrate 25 June every year as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’. This day will remind us of the immense contribution of all those people who suffered the inhuman pain of the Emergency of 1975,” he added.
In another post, he said the decision taken under Modi’s leadership seeks to “honour the spirit of millions who struggled to revive democracy despite facing inexplicable persecution at the hands of an oppressive government”.
Also Read | Congress's first reaction to Centre's Emergency move: 'June 4 Modi-Mukti Diwas'
A gazette notification issued by the home ministry said the imposition of the Emergency led to “gross abuse of power by the government of the day and people of India were subjected to excesses and atrocities”.
The people of India have abiding faith in the Constitution and the power of its resilient democracy, the notification said. “Therefore, Government of India declares 25th June as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ to pay tribute to all those who suffered and fought against the gross abuse of power during the period of Emergency and to recommit the people of India to not support in any manner such gross abuse of power, in future,” it said.
During the recently-concluded special session of Parliament, President Droupadi Murmu, Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s references to Emergency in both Houses had sparked massive protests from the Opposition. The Lok Sabha adopted a resolution condemning the Emergency, even as the Opposition stressed on the need to address burning issues such as irregularities in premier examinations, persistent unemployment and violence in Manipur, and said continuous references to the period were unnecessary.
Welcoming the announcement, Modi wrote on X: “#SamvidhaanHatyaDiwas will remind the countrymen of the conditions the country had to go through after the Constitution was crushed... The country will always remember this oppressive step of the Congress as a black chapter in Indian history.”
Union minister Pralhad Joshi said the people cannot forget what former prime minister Indira Gandhi did in 1975 after imposing the Emergency in the country. “I want to clear up one thing to the democratic loving people through the media that whatever Indira ji did was the ‘Samvidhan ka Hatya’. People can’t forget this,” he said.
The Congress, however, slammed the Centre over its announcement with party general secretary (in-charge, communications) Jairam Ramesh taking to X to claim that Modi “imposed an undeclared Emergency for 10 long years before the people of India handed him a decisive personal, political, and moral defeat on June 4, 2024 – which will go down in history as Modi Mukti Diwas.” His reference was to the BJP’s inability to surpass the majority mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha during the recent elections. To be sure, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) enjoys a comfortable majority with 293 seats.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress’s ally in the INDIA bloc, alleged the BJP has been “murdering” the Constitution every day for the last 10 years.