Emergency turned democracy into a farce, says Khattar

Post Independence India saw a government built on a system of monopolies. The Jana Sangh was founded to challenge this, its objective was to establish a robust Opposition, Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said at a seminar held in Patna on Tuesday on the eve of 50th anniversary of Emergency.

The fight against this monopoly culminated in 1967 when the Congress government was changed democratically, he pointed out. “In 1971, Congress launched the ‘Garibi Hatao’ (eradicate poverty) campaign, but it was overshadowed by deceit and authoritarianism. The subsequent emergency saw the suppression of the Opposition and the curtailment of press freedom, effectively turning democracy into a farce.”

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Speaking at the conference, BJP’s Bihar state president Dr. Dilip Jaiswal described the Emergency as a black spot on the Congress party’s history, asserting that it was a time when the party overshadowed democracy.

Discussing the Emergency, he highlighted its detrimental impact, characterising it as a period where self-interest overshadowed the nation. He argued that the Congress party used the Emergency to effectively suppress the country’s constitution.

He said stories from that era still evoke a sense of horror. The Emergency silenced the Opposition, shut down newspapers and the press, disregarded the judiciary, and trampled on citizens’ rights. He argued that the emergency’s authoritarian regime essentially destroyed the constitution.