New Delhi, June 25:Marking the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, a period widely regarded as a grave assault on India’s democratic foundations, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday issued a forceful reminder of the era’s repression, paying tribute to those countless Indians who stood tall in defence of democracy during one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history,what he called the “arrest of democracy” under the Congress-led regime of 1975.
Calling June 25 ‘SamvidhanHatyaDiwas’,the Prime Minister remembered the suspension of fundamental rights, press censorship, and mass arrests of political opponents as a systematic dismantling of constitutional order. “It was as if the Congress government in power had placed democracy itself behind bars,” he said in a series of posts on social media platform X.
The Prime Minister recalled the events of 1975, when the then Congress-led government suspended fundamental rights, muzzled the press, and jailed thousands of political leaders, activists, students, and ordinary citizens.
In a series of posts on social media platform X, the Prime Minister said:
“Today marks fifty years since one of the darkest chapters in India’s democratic history, the imposition of the Emergency. On this day, the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution were set aside, fundamental rights were suspended, press freedom was extinguished… It was as if the Congress Government in power at that time placed democracy under arrest.”
Calling it a period when the spirit of the Constitution was violated,Modi referred to the 42nd Constitutional Amendment as a prime example of institutional overreach. He noted how the voice of Parliament was silencedandattempts were made to control the judiciary, adding that the poor and marginalised were particularly targeted.
“We salute every person who stood firm in the fight against the Emergency — people from all walks of life, across ideologies, united by one aim: to protect India’s democratic fabric.”
He said that their collective resistance eventually forced the government to restore democracy and hold fresh elections, which the Congress party “badly lost.”
The Prime Minister also appealed to those who experienced the Emergency firsthand or whose families suffered during that time to share their stories on social media, aiming to raise awareness among younger generations.
Reflecting on his own role during the period, Modi recalled his days as a young RSS pracharak, calling the anti-Emergency movement a “learning experience.”
“It reaffirmed the vitality of preserving our democratic framework. At the same time, I got to learn so much from people across the political spectrum.”
He further appreciated the compilation of Emergency-era accounts in a book released by BlueKraft Digital Foundation, whose foreword is penned by former Prime Minister and senior anti-Emergency figure H.D. DeveGowda.
