Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday targeted the Congress and its allies, including the DMK and socialist parties, sharply accusing them of joining hands with a party that “killed democracy” by imposing the Emergency in 1975.
Addressing an event titled 50 Years Since Emergency, Shah described the date — 25 June — as a reminder of how far the Congress party would go in its pursuit of power.
“Although 50 years have elapsed since the Emergency, the memories of the Congress’s injustice, tyranny and dictatorship remain fresh in our minds,” Shah told the gathering.
He said that following the imposition of the Emergency, around 1.1 lakh individuals — including opposition leaders, student activists, journalists and editors — were arrested across India. He added that the Congress government led by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had also dismissed non-Congress state governments in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
Shah criticised parties such as the DMK and socialist groups for now aligning with the Congress, despite having once been victims of the authoritarianism they now appear to overlook.
“I want to ask these parties — DMK, socialists and others — not the Congress: what moral right do you have to question democracy when you are allied with the very party which killed democracy in this country?” he said.
He asserted that dictatorship has no place in India, which he referred to as the “birthplace of democracy”.
“No one, other than a coterie surrounding the dictator, supported the Emergency. That is why, when the Emergency was lifted, the Indian people voted to elect the country’s first non-Congress government at the Centre,” Shah added.
Reflecting on his own life, Shah said he was only 11 years old when the Emergency was declared, and that 184 villagers from his hometown in Gujarat had been arrested and imprisoned in Sabarmati Jail.
The Emergency — declared on 25 June 1975 — suspended civil liberties, curtailed press freedom and led to mass arrests of opposition leaders. It remained in force until March 1977, when it was revoked after the Congress suffered defeat in the general election and the Janata Party came to power.
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