Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "uprooting dynasty politics" and “strengthening the roots of democracy” as the ruling dispensation marked the 50th anniversary of the Emergency and used the occasion to skewer the Congress.
The Congress, in turn, highlighted the “murder of democracy” on Modi’s watch and the "zero contribution" of the BJP’s ideological fathers to the making of the Constitution, fielding party president Mallikarjun Kharge to lead the charge against the government’s offensive.
The Union cabinet, chaired by Modi, adopted a resolution against the Emergency, and Shah released a book chronicling a young Modi’s "fight for the ideals of democracy” during those turbulent times. The cabinet resolution was followed by a two-minute silence as a tribute to those “whose constitutionally guaranteed rights were taken away and who were then subjected to unimaginable horrors”.
“The year 2025 marks 50 years of the Samvidhan Hatya Diwas — an unforgettable chapter in the history of India where the Constitution was subverted, the Republic and democratic spirit of India was attacked, federalism was undermined, and fundamental rights, human liberty and dignity were suspended,” the resolution stated.
Speaking at the release of the book on Modi, Shah said the youth of the country should read it to understand how a young man had fought against dictatorship and was strengthening the roots of democracy as the Prime Minister today.
“Look at how divine justice takes place. A 25-year-old boy (Modi) opposed Indira Gandhi’s dictatorship. In 2014, the same person uprooted the reason for which the Emergency was imposed: dynastic politics,” Shah said. “The youth who struggled against the dictatorship is now strengthening the roots of democracy in this country,” he added.
Shah said that Modi, as a young RSS pracharak, had remained underground and participated in the movement against the Emergency disguised as “sadhu, sardarji, hippie, incense stick seller and a newspaper vendor”.
Interacting with the media, Kharge said the “predecessors of the people who are now paying lip service to the Constitution had burnt the Constitution in Ramlila Maidan, and also burnt the effigies of Ambedkar, Gandhi and Nehru”.
This is the first time the Congress organised such a high-profile pushback on the government’s Emergency narrative. Kharge underscored the fact that Indira had been voted back with a big mandate in 1980, signalling that the country had moved on from the Emergency.
Billing the BJP’s offensive as yet another bid to divert attention from bread-and-butter issues, Kharge said there had been an “undeclared Emergency” in the country for the past decade and cited how all institutions designed to act as checks and balances were being micromanaged by the Modi dispensation.
Promoting the book on X, Modi said The Emergency Diaries-Years That Forged a Leader, chronicled his journey during the Emergency. “…The people of India mark this day as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas…. It was as if the Congress Government in power at that time placed democracy under arrest!” Modi posted.