New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took to Twitter to recall the Internal Emergency imposed on India by the then PM Indira Gandhi’s government in 1975.
He tweeted, “The #DarkDaysOfEmergency can never be forgotten. The period from 1975 to 1977 witnessed the systematic destruction of institutions. Let us pledge to do everything possible to strengthen India’s democratic spirit, and live up to the values enshrined in our Constitution.”
He also recalled how the Indian National Congress (INC) misused Emergency to trample domestic ethos, as he shared an Instagram link of the official BJP account at the end of the tweet.
The tweet read, “This is how Congress trampled over our democratic ethos. We remember all those greats who resisted the Emergency and protected Indian democracy. #DarkDaysOfEmergency.”
On June 25, 1975, the then President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, had announced a nationwide state of Internal Emergency on the recommendation of the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government. She took the drastic step to save her government after the Allahabad High Court ruled against her election as a Lok Sabha MP from the Raebareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
Often regarded as one of the darkest periods for Indian democracy, the National Emergency remained in effect from June 25, 1975, to March 21, 1977.
(Avya Mathur)
