NEW DELHI: The BJP on Tuesday, on the 49th anniversary of the Emergency, launched a sharp attack on the Congress with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that its dark days are a reminder of how the Congress subverted basic freedoms and trampled over the Constitution which every Indian respects greatly.
Hitting out at the main opposition party, he said in posts on X that those who imposed the Emergency have no right to profess their love for our Constitution.
Modi said, "These are the same people who have imposed Article 356 on innumerable occasions, got a Bill to destroy press freedom, destroyed federalism and violated every aspect of the Constitution."
"The mindset which led to the imposition of the Emergency is very much alive among the same Party which imposed it. They hide their disdain for the Constitution through their tokenism but the people of India have seen through their antics and that is why they have rejected them time and again," he said.
BJP president J P Nadda said on 'X' that those who claim to be the guardians of Indian democracy today had spared no efforts to suppress the voices raised in the defence of constitutional values.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the Emergency, imposed by the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 before she lifted it in 1977 and called for elections, is a black chapter in Indian democracy which cannot be forgotten.
Dictatorship and misuse of power were on brazen display during the period, Singh said on 'X', adding that it raises a big question mark on the commitment to democracy of several political parties.
The BJP's trenchant criticism of the Congress came amid campaign by opposition parties claiming that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working against the Constitution.
The Congress and other opposition members carried copies of the Constitution in Parliament on Monday as the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha began.
Modi on Monday also invoked the imposition of the Emergency to target the Congress and called upon people to ensure that it is never repeated.
In his post in Hindi on 'X', Shah said the "arrogant and autocratic" Congress government had suspended people's civil rights for 21 months for the sake of power to one family.
Censorship was imposed on the media, the Constitution was amended and even the judiciary was restrained, he said, paying tributes to those who waged a fight against the Emergency.
BJP chief and Union minister Nadda said the Congress' politically driven decision to impose a state of Emergency had shaken the very pillars of democracy as it tried to trample over the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar.
"During this period, those who today claim to be guardians of Indian democracy left no effort to suppress voices raised in defense of constitutional values," he said.
"I am proud that our Party belongs to that tradition which resisted the Emergency tooth and nail and worked to protect democracy," Nadda added.
