Agartala, June 25 (IANS) The 21-month Emergency period unleashed an era of anarchism in India, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha said while addressing the ‘Mock Parliament on the Dark Days of Emergency’.

The Chief Minister said that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, after imposing the Emergency on June 25, 1975, totally curbed the voice of the people till March 21, 1977, when the black days of emergency were withdrawn. Saha, former President of the BJP’s Tripura unit, said that after declaring the Emergency, many important opposition leaders were put behind the jail and there was no democracy at that time.

“Not only had the opposition leaders, leaders of her own party (Congress) who raised any issues, been imprisoned under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency period. Many Editors and Journalists were also arrested for making comments about the Emergency,” he pointed out and adding “we hope that never such an undemocratic and dark period returns again”. After Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, protection of democracy was further strengthened with the values of the Indian constitution upheld, Saha said.

He informed that the ‘Mock Parliament on the Dark Days of Emergency’ is being held at more than 100 places in the country. The BJP, as part of the party’s nationwide programme on Wednesday, observed ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas (Murder of Constitution Day) across Tripura, recalling the horror of the Emergency promulgated by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, with seminars, discussions, and public awareness series.

In the state-level programme at Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhavan, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) organised a mock Parliament debate on Indian democracy among the party’s youths. The Chief Minister highlighting the various facets of the ‘dark phase of Emergency’, said that the Emergency, which lasted for 21 months from June 25, 1975, to March 21, 1977, was imposed under Article 352 of the Constitution, had made the citizens’ lives terrible and all kinds of democratic activities were entirely curtailed. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi forced then President (Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed) to declare the Emergency, he said.

During the period of Emergency, citizens’ basic rights were suspended, media freedom was curbed through heavy censorship, and the independence of the judiciary was severely undermined, he reminded. “We condemned those days of Congress in the 50th year of the beginning of the Emergency and tried to educate younger generations about those black days,” Saha said. State BJP President Rajib Bhattacharjee and other leaders also spoke at the event.

–IANS

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