Emergency, a blot on Indian democracy, says Dr Laxman

Hyderabad: The BJP Telangana State unit organised an Anti-Emergency Day on Tuesday, with leaders recollecting the dark days of the Emergency and felicitating those who took part in fighting against it.

Addressing a felicitation programme in the BJP City Central Office on Tuesday, BJP MP and OBC Morcha national president Dr K Laxman termed June 25, 1975 as a black day for democracy in independent India.

He stressed that all those below 50 years, and also those seeking to enter politics to serve the people should read the essays and books written about the brutalities unleashed against people during those dark days.

He said the BJP is observing the Anti-Emergency Day as black day in villages and cities across the country to create awareness among future generations on the Emergency, marking the occasion of 50 years of the imposition of Emergency by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

He criticised the late PM and Congress for treating the country as their family, and launching the campaign ‘Indira is India and India is Indira’.

He said that the Allahabad High Court had nullified the election of Indira Gandhi, upholding that she had resorted to irregularities and corrupt ways to win the election. The High Court had given its verdict based on the constitution and democracy of the country.

However, without convening the cabinet, the late PM forced to have the emergency proclamation signed by the President and imposed it at midnight, he alleged.

This was to undo the High Court verdict to hang on to power, he said.

“These days, we hear about rigging, irregularities and other electoral malpractices. The seeds of electoral malpractices were sown by Indira," he alleged.

Dr Laxman said 1.4 lakh people, including opposition leaders and nationalists were arrested, press censorship was imposed and even printing pamphlets in the printing press was restricted.

“But Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi accuse the BJP and PM Narendra Modi's government at the Centre of imposing an unannounced emergency in the country like devils chanting the Vedas,” he added.

The Congress and opposition parties unleashed a vicious campaign that the Constitution would be changed and reservations would be revoked if

Modi came to power for a third term.

“They might have succeeded in some pockets. However, people have given their response and brought the NDA government to the Centre for the third time under PM Modi,” he pointed out.