“Emergency Was Congress’s Hunger for Power, Not National Necessity”: Amit Shah
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 25th June: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress party, marking the 50th anniversary of the Emergency. He termed the 21-month Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975, as a manifestation of “anti-democratic mentality” and “the Congress’ hunger for power,” not a national necessity.
Paying homage to those who endured repression during the period, Shah said the Emergency was “an age of injustice” and a dark chapter in India’s democratic journey. He asserted that the Modi government commemorates this day as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’ to make the new generation aware of the “pain and torture” inflicted upon the citizens during the Emergency.
“The Emergency was not declared out of any compulsion of national interest,” Shah wrote on social media platform X. “It was a result of Congress’s anti-democratic mindset and the authoritarian impulse of just one individual.”
In his tribute, Shah noted that during the Emergency, press freedom was crushed, judiciary was shackled, and thousands of social workers and political opponents were jailed. “This day reminds us that when power turns dictatorial, the people of India have the strength to uproot it,” he wrote, recalling the public resistance that ultimately led to the fall of the Congress regime in the 1977 elections.
The Home Minister also reiterated that observing June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas is crucial to keeping alive the spirit of individual liberty and democratic resistance in the minds of future generations. He warned that such remembrance helps prevent the return of “dictatorial forces” like the Congress from repeating “those horrors”.
A gazette notification issued last year by the Ministry of Home Affairs noted the “gross abuse of power” during the Emergency and highlighted the “inhuman pain” endured by citizens, describing it as a period that deeply violated democratic values.
Shah concluded his message by saluting the heroes of the resistance who laid the foundation for a stronger democratic India and ensured that no government could ever again take the people’s rights for granted.
