NEW DELHI: The government on Friday issued a notification declaring that it has decided to observe June 25, the day Emergency was imposed in the country in 1975, as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ to commemorate the “massive contributions” of those who endured “inhuman pains” during the period.
Announcing this Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, the observance of ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ will help keep the eternal flame of individual freedom and the defence of democracy alive in every Indian, thus preventing “dictatorial forces” like the Congress from “repeating those horrors”.
The gazette notification, which was issued on Friday by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), notes that Emergency was declared on June 25, 1975, following which there was “gross abuse of power by the government of the day and people of India were subjected to excesses and atrocities”. It went on to add that the people of India have abiding faith in the Constitution and the power of its resilient democracy.
“Therefore, Government of India declares 25th June as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ to pay tribute to all those who suffered and fought against the gross abuse of power during the period of Emergency and to recommit the people of India to not support in any manner such gross abuse of power, in future,” the notification read.
The Home Minister further said that on June 25, 1975, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in a “brazen display of a dictatorial mindset, strangled the soul of India’s democracy by imposing the Emergency on the nation”.
Lakhs of people were thrown behind bars for no fault of their own, and the voice of the media was silenced, he noted.
“The Government of India has decided to observe the 25th of June every year as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. This day will commemorate the massive contributions of all those who endured the inhuman pains of the 1975 Emergency,” Shah said in one of ‘X’ posts.
“The decision made by the government led by PM Shri @narendramodi Ji is intended to honour the spirit of millions who struggled to revive democracy despite facing inexplicable persecution at the hands of an oppressive government,” he added.
