PM Modi Slams Congress Over 1975 Emergency excesses

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the 1975 Emergency, describing the historical 21-month period as a direct assault on the Indian Constitution and one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history. Marking the 51st anniversary of the fateful declaration on June 25, 1975, the Prime Minister used the occasion of “Samvidhan Hatya Diwas” (Constitution Murder Day) to forcefully criticize the Congress party, accusing its past leadership of brutally trampling upon democratic values, institutional integrity, and the fundamental rights of citizens. The Prime Minister’s statements underscored a broader, coordinated push by leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to ensure that the excesses and civil liberty suspensions of the mid-1970s remain deeply etched in the public memory.

In a highly critical public statement, the Prime Minister detailed how the emergency declaration by the then-Indira Gandhi government systematically dismantled the foundational pillars of Indian democracy. He noted that the era witnessed the wholesale suspension of civil liberties, unprecedented curbs on freedom of expression, a heavy-handed pre-censorship of newspapers, and the arbitrary arrests of thousands of opposition leaders, journalists, and social workers. Turning the focus toward current political narratives, the Prime Minister alleged that those who originally engineered the Emergency have no moral right to profess love for the Constitution today, adding that the authoritarian mindset that birthed the 1975 crackdown remains quietly active behind contemporary political tokenism.