New Delhi, June 24: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that the resistance to the Emergency imposed in 1975 is what has kept Indian democracy alive. Speaking at the ‘Aapatkaal Ke 50 Saal’ event in New Delhi, Shah strongly criticized the Congress party and warned against forgetting the “darkest period” in independent India’s history.
“It has been 50 years on paper, but the wounds inflicted by the Congress’ tyranny during the Emergency are still fresh in the hearts of crores of Indians,” Shah said. Without directly naming him, he took a veiled dig at Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, questioning the Congress party’s right to speak about constitutional values. “What did your party do during the Emergency? Was any permission taken from Parliament?” he asked.
Shah described the Emergency as a time when the entire country was turned into a prison. “The judiciary, the legislature, the executive, the press — all were silenced. People like George Fernandes and Acharya Kripalani were jailed without reason,” he said.
Criticizing the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her so-called “Kitchen Cabinet,” Shah noted that the Constitution, which took over two years and 1,100 hours of debate to craft, was dismissed in a moment. “A nation of free citizens was turned overnight into subjects of a dictatorship,” he said.
He emphasized that remembering the Emergency is not merely a ritual but a necessary reminder to prevent history from repeating itself. “The night of June 24, 1975, was the longest in our democratic history — it lasted 21 months,” Shah added.
He concluded by urging citizens to remember how a democratic nation’s institutions were dismantled and vowed that such a chapter must never be repeated.
