The Centre on Friday announced that June 25, the day the Emergency was declared in 1975 by the then Indira Gandhi government, would be observed every year as Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas (Constitution Murder Day).
The Congress hit back saying there was an "undeclared Emergency" in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Centre's move is being seen as an attempt to counter the Opposition's campaign accusing the Modi government of subverting the Constitution. Sources suggested it was also vengeance for the losses the BJP had suffered in the general election because of the Opposition's allegation that if returned to power, the Modi government would amend the Constitution to do away with reservations.
Home minister Amit Shah said: "On June 25, 1975, the then PM Indira Gandhi, in a brazen display of a dictatorial mindset, strangled the soul of our democracy by imposing the Emergency on the nation."
Shah added: “Lakhs of people were thrown behind bars for no fault of their own, and the voice of the media was silenced.”
“The Government of India has decided to observe the 25th of June every year as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. This day will commemorate the massive contributions of all those who endured the inhuman pains of the 1975 Emergency.”
Modi too put up a post on X saying the day would serve as a reminder of how the Constitution was trampled on.
“To observe 25th June as #SamvidhaanHatyaDiwas will serve as a reminder of what happens when the Constitution of India was trampled over,” he wrote.
“It is also a day to pay homage to each and every person who suffered due to the excesses of the Emergency, a Congress unleashed dark phase of Indian history.”
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh accused Modi of hypocrisy.
“Yet another headline grabbing exercise in hypocrisy by the non-biological PM who had imposed an undeclared Emergency for ten long years before the people of India handed him a decisive personal, political, and moral defeat on June 4, 2024 -- which will go down in history as ModiMukti Diwas,” Ramesh posted on X.
“This is a non-biological PM who has subjected the Constitution of India and its principles, values, and institutions to systematic assault. This is a non-biological PM whose ideological parivar had rejected the Constitution of India in Nov 1949 on the grounds that it did not derive inspiration from Manusmriti. This is a non-biological PM for whom democracy means only demo-kursi.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge too slammed the government move, accusing it of murdering democracy every day for the past 10 years.
“Was it not the murder of democracy when a BJP leader urinated on tribals in Madhya Pradesh or when UP police forcibly cremated a Dalit daughter of Hathras?” Kharge said in a post on X, tagging Modi.
“When every 15 minutes a major crime against Dalits takes place and every day six Dalit women are raped…. When minorities are subjected to illegal bulldozer justice, in which 1.5 lakh houses are demolished in just 2 years and 7.38 lakh people are rendered homeless. When Manipur is in the grip of violence over the past 13 months and you do not like to visit there… what is it if not murder of the Constitution?”
