Indian democracy has received praise and prestige worldwide. However, in this rich journey of democracy, a tarnished chapter like Emergency is also associated. Who can forget the night of 25 June 1975, especially known as the ‘dictatorship’ of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This was the same night when the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed announced an emergency in the country at the behest of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
On 25 June 2025, the Congress Party’s top leader and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi will complete 50 years imposed on the emergency on the country. In the Emergency, the maliciousness of the Congress can be gauged from the fact that it has not apologized for this till date. On June 21, former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said in an interview to a prestigious news agency in the country, “The Congress should apologize to the people of the country for the Emergency. The Congress should regret it, but the Congress never apologized for this. Now that emergency is going to be implemented in the country, it is going to be 50 years, in such a situation, the Congress party should publicly regret it.
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On 20 November 2017, Journalist Kuldeep Nayar, who was prisoner during the Emergency, depicts an article published in the BBC about the Emergency of the Congress. Nayyar writes, “Emergency was no less than a crime, but the Congress party never apologized for this. Especially a word of regret was not said to be from the Nehru-Gandhi family. Non-Congress parties issued a statement or protested against it, but the Congress party remained silent on the Emergency.
Instead of apologizing, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, was proud of the Emergency on 23 July 1985 and said in the Lok Sabha that nothing is wrong in the Emergency. “The former PM had even said that if a Prime Minister of this country considers the Emergency necessary in these circumstances and does not apply emergency, then he is not worthy of becoming the Prime Minister of this country.” This act of proud of dictatorship shows that the Congress has nothing dear to the Congress other than family and power. ”The statement of former PM Rajiv Gandhi reflects the original character of the Congress Party.
If two generations have grown up after the period of Emergency, then they will not know how bad the situation in the country. Opposition members were taken into custody from Parliament without any court proceedings. More than one lakh people were put in jail. According to a report, more than 1 crore 10 lakh people were sterilized during the Emergency. Indira Gandhi had made herself a law. All the limits of vengeance in Indira Gandhi were broken. The country has been suffering till date till date, the Congress has played with the constitutional institutions and dignities of the country during the Emergency.
Senior Congress leader former Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said in July 2015, why should we apologize? Why should we discuss the Emergency? In March 2021, Rahul Gandhi said in response to a question asked on the Emergency at Cornell University in America, “I think it was a mistake, that was a mistake, it was a mistake. And my grandmother (Indira Gandhi) also said that.”
In a conversation with the then editor -in -chief of A Indian Express Shekhar Gupta in May 2004, Sonia Gandhi said that her mother -in -law later felt that it was a mistake. Sonia Gandhi then said, “Well, my mother -in -law herself after losing the election (in 1977) said that she had reconsidered that (Emergency). And the fact that she declared the election, meaning she rethinks the Emergency.”
On June 25 last year, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla read a resolution condemning the Emergency, in which the Emergency was described as a ‘attack on the Constitution by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’. Congress MPs protested in the proposal that this black era should not be remembered for five decades old. In such a situation, the important question is whether the Congress considers the Emergency as correct or does it not be remembered by this dictatorial step to tarnish democracy and disrespect the Constitution?
See the culmination of shamelessness, the Congress party leader who imposed an emergency only to maintain his power, these days the leaders of the same party claim to be the constitution guards. From the 2024 general election, Indira Gandhi’s grandson Rahul Gandhi continues to publicly wave a book of the Constitution and claim that the Congress party is the real patron of the constitution and democratic values, while the truth is that the Congress has left no stone unturned to damage the soul of the Constitution during the Emergency.
During the special debate on the Constitution in the Lok Sabha on December 2024, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “She (Rajnath Singh) talk about 1975 (Emergency), learn not to you … You too should apologize for your mistakes … You too should choose on the ballot … Milk milk, water will be water.” That is, instead of apologizing for your mistake, it is the old nature of the Congress to give advice to the person in front. Priyanka also did what her party leaders have been doing.
Nayar writes that, “After the war Germany apologized for Hitler’s atrocities. Even Germany had filled damages for this. No forgiveness can be given for such atrocities, but people generally feel that children will realize that their ancestors tried to rectify the mistake. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to Amritsar Golden Temple and apologized for the blue star operation. ”
The words that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath targeted the Congress on 25 June 2024, it makes it easier to know and understand the original form and character of the Congress. Yogi ji had said that at that time we all got to see a barbaric face of Congress. How the Congress had completely banned the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country at that time. How the rights of the court were held hostage by the Congress at that time and even today, even though the leadership in the Congress party has changed, the face has changed, but its character is the same.
45 years after the Emergency, Rahul Gandhi on foreign soil admitted that the emergency decision was wrong. But he or any Congress leader apologized for the Emergency. Congress leaders Gahe -Baghe continues to mislead the emergency and shamelessly prove this inhuman decision right. But they do not muster the moral and political courage of apologizing for a grossly undemocratic and strangling decisions, inhuman and dictatorial attitude taken by the leader of their party.
-Dr. Ashish Vashistha
(freelance journalist)
