New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) The BJP plans to organise mock parliament across the country to educate the youth about the imposition of Emergency in 1975 that marked the ‘darkest period’ of the nation’s democratic history, party MP and National spokesman Sambit Patra said on Thursday.

Addressing the media, Patra said: “The BJP wants to educate the current generation about the ‘serious sin’ committed by the Congress by imposing Emergency in the past, so that it does not get repeated in future.”

“The manner in which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sacrificed the Constitution for her personal ambition needs to be told to the youth,” he said.

They need to know the kind of atrocities our elders faced during that phase under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), he said, referring to the period that gave sweeping preventive detention power to the government along with censorship of press.

Patra said the mock parliament will carry this issue to the youth in a democratic manner around the anniversary of Emergency on June 25, 1975.

He said mock parliament will also help understand the situation in the country and will be party of nationwide campaign to mark 50 years of since imposition of the Emergency, when civil liberties were suspended, and democratic institutions were brought under direct control by the central government.

The 21-month Emergency was imposed by Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975 shortly after the Supreme Court granted a conditional stay on an Allahabad High Court verdict which declared her election to the Lok Sabha as null and void.

At the government level, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs also encourages conduct of mock parliament in educational institutions to educate them about democratic practices.

The Ministry launched the web portal of the National Youth Parliament Scheme (NYPS) on November 26, 2019, to expand the outreach of Youth Parliament Programme of the Ministry to all the recognized educational institutions of the country.

NYPS 2.0 has been introduced so that all the citizens of the country can participate on the portal through – Institution Participation; Group Participation and Individual Participation.

Through Institution Participation, all the educational institutions of the country can conduct Youth Parliament Sitting (YPS). Through Group Participation, all the citizens of the country can conduct YPS by forming formal or informal Groups.

Through Individual Participation, all the citizens of the country can participate in the Quiz on the theme of “Bharatiya Democracy in Action”, according to a Ministry statement.

–IANS

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