Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the then prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in 1975 to remain in power, and there was no other reason for the “catastrophic attack on the country’s democratic setup”.
“A large number of people were put in jails across the country. Anybody who questioned the government was put behind bars, and the democratically elected governments were removed,” he said at an event here.
In a veiled attack on Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, Shah said people who often talk about the Constitution were the ones who killed it in spirit by imposing emergency in the country on June 25, 1975.
The Narendra Modi government at the Centre has decided to observe the day as ‘Samvidhan Mrityu Divas’ (Constitution Killing Day), and rightly so as the Indira Gandhi government did not care about the constitution, and went on imposing the emergency in the country, the minister said.
“There was no danger to the country. The danger was only to the chair of the Prime Minister, and to keep her seat safe, she declared an emergency, suspending the rights of the people and especially those of the press.
“Editors, newspersons and others who would report it or oppose it were put in jails. The press was censored and there was no freedom in the country,” he said.
Sharing his own personal memory about the incident, the Union Home Minister said he was about 10-year-old when it happened but he clearly remembers how, after the general election were conducted following the emergency was withdrawn, the counting of votes was taking place and how both the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi lost their respective seats.
“This was the power of democracy in India. Even today, the country has the same values as they are deep-rooted in the minds of the people,” the minister said.
People, the minister said, ask why to remember the incident as it’s been long now since it happened, he said the nation must know about it as feelings, whether good or bad, could re-emerge, hence people should know who is up to what.