New Delhi:The BJP on Monday lashed out at the Congress for imposing Emergency in 1975 and said this was done purely for political selfishness and to continue in power.
"In 1975 on this day, democracy was murdered by the Congress party merely to meet political ends and to continue in power," BJP chief Amit Shah tweeted.
He said the authoritarian mechanism was clamped and a large number of people were arrested, Parliamentary powers were crushed and freedom of media was muzzled."I salute those citizens who struggled to bring back democracy in the country," he said.
The authority of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act was used in the early hours of June 26 and an era of repression of political opponents began which continued till March 1977.
In her address to the nation, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said the President has proclaimed national emergency. The days before the imposition of emergency, Late Ms Gandhi's election was declared null and void by Allahabad High Court.
Taking cognisance of a petition filed by socialist leader Raj Narain, the Congress leader Indira Gandhi was unseated from her Lok Sabha seat and she was also banned from contesting in any election for next six years. The BJP has decided to observe 'Black Day' on Tuesday 26 across the country to mark the anniversary of the Emergency.
BJP chief, senior leaders and union Ministers will held press conferences across the country to highlight how Emergency was used to crush people's fundamental rights.
BJP party president Amit Shah will lead the charge in Gujarat while among others, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Ananth Kumar, Prakash Javadekar will address media in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively.The BJP-ruled states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and Mizoram, which is under Congress rule, will go to the polls later this year. BJP leader and spokesman Nalin Kohli will address the media conference against Emergency in Mizoram on Tuesday.
In an article on Sunday, senior party leader and Union Minister Arun Jaitley, who as a student leader was arrested and kept in preventive detention under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), said, "It was a phoney emergency on account of proclaimed policy that Indira Gandhi was indispensable to India and all contrarian voices had to be crushed. The constitutional provisions were used to turn democracy into a constitutional dictatorship"(UNI)
