50 Years Since Emergency: BJP, Congress Clash Over Legacy, Constitution And Propaganda
The poignant memories of the 1975 Emergency resurfaced on Wednesday as the BJP and Congress locked horns, while marking the 50th anniversary of the turning point in India's political history.
On June 25, 1975, former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency, which lasted for 21 months, leading to the suspension of civil liberties, arrest of opposition leaders and the suppression of press freedom.
The BJP sought to steal the anti-Emergency sentiments by organising events from Raj Bhavan to the Veer Savarkar Auditorium in Dadar. On the other hand, the Congress leaders asserted that senior RSS leaders of that time had backed the decision to impose Emergency. State Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal claimed former RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras had supported the Emergency and had publicly distanced his organisation from the movement launched by Jai Prakash Narayan.
Speaking at a Raj Bhavan event, CM Devendra Fadnavis said democracy survived in India because of those who opposed the Emergency. He remembered the period as a “dark chapter when the Constitution, democracy and several institutions were trampled upon and the fundamental rights of citizens were suspended.” Some personalities from the city, who participated in the agitation against Gandhi's decision, were felicitated by Governor C P Radhakrishnan.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad termed the Emergency decision as the “Congress' biggest assault on the Constitution”. He was in the city to attend a special programme, which was organised by the party's city unit to honour people who were jailed during the Emergency.
Prasad said, “Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi says the Constitution is in danger. I want to ask him who attacked the Constitution more than the Congress during the Emergency.” He added, “The Congress never apologised for jailing 1.5 lakh people and 253 journalists. Instead, Rajiv Gandhi later said the Emergency was appropriate.”
Meanwhile, Sapkal said the imposition of the Emergency by Indira Gandhi was constitutional, while accusing the BJP of spreading false propaganda. Training guns at the saffron party, he remarked that an “undeclared emergency has been in place for the past 11 years”.
“The decision to impose the Emergency was necessitated as some forces were trying to spread anarchy,” said Sapkal, while slamming the BJP for “one-sided portrayal”. Attacking further, he claimed 'Sengol' replaced the state emblem in advertisements issued by the BJP-led state government on Emergency and dubbed it a conspiracy to alter the Constitution.
“The government spent crores on propaganda. However, the state emblem is missing in the advertisement issued by the state in a newspaper, and a Sengol is displayed instead. This is not just symbolic, it's part of a larger conspiracy to alter the Constitution,” Sapkal asserted.
'Sengol', a historical sceptre from Tamil Nadu, which was given by the British to the first PM Jawaharlal Nehru to represent the transfer of power, was installed in the new Parliament building.
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