Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted today on 45 years of the Emergency of 1975. (File photo)

New Delhi:

The sacrifice made by the people who fought for the protection of India’s democracy will never be forgotten, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted today on 45 years of the Emergency of 1975, when then prime minister Indira Gandhi suspended constitutional rights and jailed scores of opposition leaders following a Supreme Court order that threatened her post.

The Emergency — that was imposed on June 1975 lasted till March 1977 — saw civil liberties being severely restricted and political dissent suppressed.

“Emergency was imposed on the country exactly 45 years ago. At the time, people who fought for the protection of India’s democracy, suffered torture, I salute them all! The country will never forget their sacrifice,” PM Modi tweeted in Hindi.

“When Emergency was imposed, its opposition was not restricted to political class alone but filled every one with resentment. People were in anguish to get back  the lost democracy. Every citizen felt that something was taken away from them,” PM Modi is heard saying in the video he shared with the tweet.

आज से ठीक 45 वर्ष पहले देश पर आपातकाल थोपा गया था। उस समय भारत के लोकतंत्र की रक्षा के लिए जिन लोगों ने संघर्ष किया, यातनाएं झेलीं, उन सबको मेरा शत-शत नमन! उनका त्याग और बलिदान देश कभी नहीं भूल पाएगा। pic.twitter.com/jlQVJQVrsX

– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 25, 2020

Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah also targeted the Congress and Gandhis in series of tweets, saying “one family’s greed for power” turned the nation into a “prison” overnight.

“On this day, 45 years ago, one family’s greed for power led to the imposition of the Emergency. Overnight the nation was turned into a prison. The press, courts, free speech… all were trampled over. Atrocities were committed on the poor and downtrodden,” Mr Shah tweeted.

“Due to efforts of lakhs of people, the Emergency was lifted. Democracy was restored in India but it remained absent in the Congress. The interests of one family prevailed over party interests and national interests. This sorry state of affairs thrives in today’s Congress too!” said the Home Minister.

As one of India’s opposition parties, Congress needs to ask itself:

Why does the Emergency mindset remain?

Why are leaders who don’t belong to 1 dynasty unable to speak up?

Why are leaders getting frustrated in Congress?

Else, their disconnect with people will keep widening.

– Amit Shah (@AmitShah) June 25, 2020

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala hit back at the BJP. “As India’s ruling party, BJP needs to answer: Why is its majoritarian rule described as Govt of 2 people only & all others as mere side kicks? Why is horse trading, mass defections & institution capture its only legacy? Why is it obsessed in its vile hatred of Nehru-Gandhis?” he tweeted.

Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a series of tweets, attacked the Congress for its “grossly undemocratic” behaviour which he claimed still continues.

On 25th June 1975 draconian Emergency was imposed by the Congress Govt led by PM Indira Gandhi. Major opposition leaders including Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, Bharat Ratna Atal Behari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani, Chandrashekhar and lakhs of people of India were arrested.

– Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 25, 2020

“Ultimately people of India voted massively against the Congress Party in 1977 Lok Sabha election and even Indira Gandhi was defeated and the first non-Congress Government came to power at Centre,” he said.

The announcement of the Emergency was made on June 25, 1975, days after the Allahabad High Court found Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices and disbarred her as a parliamentarian for six years.

For much of the Emergency, most of Indira Gandhi’s political opponents were jailed and the press was censored. Several other human rights violations were reported. The Emergency remains one of the most controversial periods of independent India’s history.