oppn parties Tug-Of-War Over The Emergency

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Tug-Of-War Over The Emergency

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2024-07-13 06:17:02

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The Centre has notified June 25 as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas'. It was on this day in 1975 that the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imposed the dreaded Emergency and had suspended the Constitution, with the executive assuming all powers. In a late reaction to the Opposition charge during the 2024 general election campaign that the BJP under Prime Minister Modi was 'murdering' the Constitution on a daily basis and it was time to 'Save Constitution', the government has created a 'special' day for the public to remember who can rightly (according to it) be accused of killing the Constitution.

In previous years, one had spotted posters saying "unnes sau pachattar ka pachisvan June, isi din hua that gantantra ka khoon" (25th June 1975 was the day when the Republic was killed) in some places before June 25 every year that sought to remind the people of the black day in Indian history. But no previous opposition government, not even the Janata government formed just after the Emergency was lifted, had tried to keep the memories of the darkest phase in independent India's history alive officially. The NDA government has now done so. PM Modi said that observing Samvidhan Hatya Diwas on June 25 will remind the people of "what happens when the Constitution of India was trampled over. It is also a day to pay homage to each person who suffered due to the excesses of the Emergency, a Congress unleashed dark phase of Indian history".

There is no doubt the Emergency was the grossest misuse of executive power India has seen. The rights of the citizens were taken away just to keep Indira Gandhi and her government in power. It was dictatorship at its worst with the institutions and citizens of an independent and democratic nation under the control of a person, who, by virtue of her election being held invalid, had ceased to be the Prime Minister of the country.

But the opposition charges against the BJP-led NDA government are also not untrue. For the last 10 year, more specifically in the last 5 years, the government has enacted laws that were not discussed and debated but pushed through the Lok Sabha on the strength of its brute majority and 'managed' through the Rajya Sabha by striking opportunistic alliances or worse. Central agencies are taregting opposition leaders. Dissent is not tolerated (and it was one of the main features of the Emergency) and draconian laws are used to browbeat people. Just like the Emergency, the bulldozers are working again. But unlike the Emergency, the courts have acted as guardians of the Constitution. Just the 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' will not do. The government will have to mend its autocratic ways if it wants to pay true homage to the people who suffered from the excesses of the Emergency. If lessons are not learnt, their sufferings would have gone in vain. 

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