New Delhi [India], June 25 : As India marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, the Bharatiya Janata Party is observing the 50 years of the imposition of Emergency as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' 2025.
Commenting on the occasion, BJP National Spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari sharply criticised the Congress party and said, "Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, and till today the Congress party has not officially apologised for imposing the Emergency in the country."
He further added that if the Gandhi-Vadra family had even an ounce of constitutional morality, they would have apologised five decades ago.
Bhandari did not forget to take a dig at Rahul Gandhi who often carries a copy of the Constitution, said, "Those who travel with a copy of the Constitution these days belong to the same family that jailed over one lakh citizens during the Emergency, and snatched away the right to life guaranteed under Article 21".
He reminded that the Constitution was effectively suspended, democracy dismantled, and the fundamental rights of Indian citizens were stripped, all for the sake of clinging to power.
He recounted the horror during the Emergency and how more than 30 lakh poor were forcefully sterilised, more than 250 journalists were imprisoned, and freedom of expression was crushed.
He also mentioned the controversial MISA Act (The Maintenance of Internal Security Act) under which lakhs of people, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Vijay Deshmukh, Jaiprakash Narayan, along with several leaders of the opposition, were put behind bars. He called this act similar to the colonial-era laws used by the British to imprison Indian freedom fighters.
MISA was a controversial act passed in 1971. It gave the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's administration expansive powers, such as indefinite preventive detention of individuals.
The Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975, by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, following a recommendation made to the President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, under Article 352 of the Constitution.
It suspended elections, curtailed civil liberties, and granted sweeping powers to the central government, lasting until March 21, 1977. The period is widely regarded as one of the darkest chapters in Indian democratic history.