"Constitution and democracy were murdered": SP leader Ravidas Mehrotra on 'Samvidhan Hatya Divas'

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 25 (ANI): As the Centre marks the 50th anniversary of the Emergency as 'Samvidhan Hatya Divas', Samajwadi Party leader Ravidas Mehrotra recalled him and other SP leaders being jailed during the Emergency and said that the Constitution and democracy were murdered.
"Tomorrow, June 25, marks 50 years since the Emergency. Fifty years ago, the Constitution and democracy in the country were murdered, and the government was run through a dictatorship. We were imprisoned during the Emergency...We have decided to observe June 25 tomorrow as 'Samvidhan Raksha Divas'...We will tie a black band on our arms and take a pledge to protect the constitution," Mehrotra told ANI on Tuesday.
The Central government has decided to mark the 50 years of the Emergency as 'Samvidhan Hatya Divas'.
Noting that India is the mother of democracy, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday slammed Congress for imposing an Emergency in 1975 and said, "We overcame a dark chapter like the Emergency because our nation never bows down to dictatorship."
Addressing a programme on 50 years of Emergency at Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya, Amit Shah said that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency as she saw a threat to her power, and there was no external danger or internal unrest.
"Today is the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Emergency... There may arise a question why something that happened 50 years ago is being discussed now... When 50 years of any national event are completed, good or bad, its memory fades away in society. If the memory of an event like the Emergency that shook the democracy fades away, then that is harmful to the nation," he said.
"Today, we are the world's largest democracy, and the reason we overcame a dark chapter like the Emergency is because our nation never bows down to dictatorship. The world has witnessed the birth of democracy on this soil. India is the mother of democracy," he added.
Amit Shah said the first non-Congress government was formed in the country in the general elections held after the Emergency.
"At that time, no one would have liked the Emergency except for the dictators and the small group that benefited from it... They had an illusion that no one could challenge them, but after the Emergency, when the first Lok Sabha elections were held, for the first time after independence, a non-Congress government was formed and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister," he said.
"It is difficult to define the Emergency in a single sentence. I have tried to come up with a definition. The conspiracy to convert a multi-party democracy of a democratic country in a dictatorship is an Emergency," he added.
He said the Modi government decided to observe June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas so that "the country remembers how a nation suffers when its leaders turn into dictators".
"During the Emergency, so many drastic changes were made that it came to be known as a 'mini-Constitution'. From the Preamble to the Basic Structure, everything was changed. The judiciary became submissive, and democratic rights were suspended. The nation can never forget. That is why PM Modi decided to observe June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas so that the country remembers how a nation suffers when its leaders turn into dictators," he said.
The then President Fakhrudin Ali Ahmed and the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government imposed an Emergency on June 25, 1975. (ANI)