Bhopal, June 25 As the nation marks fifty years since the imposition of the Emergency, political tensions have resurfaced over how this chapter of history is being commemorated.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has declared June 25 as "Samvidhan Hatya Diwas" - a day to remember what it calls the "murder of the Constitution" - drawing sharp objections from the Congress party.
Bhaskar Rao Rokde, a senior Congress leader and state in-charge of the Indira Jyoti Abhiyan, held a press conference alongside former minister PC Sharma to denounce the BJP’s observance.
Rokde announced that he has filed a petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking a stay on the state government’s decision to mark the day under such a title.
“Nowhere in the world is a day of ‘murder’ observed using such violent language,” Rokde said, referring to the term "Hatya Diwas."
He criticised the Union Home Ministry’s notification, published in the Extraordinary Gazette on July 11, 2024, which officially designated June 25 as a day to commemorate the Emergency as a constitutional betrayal.
The following day, the Home Minister tweeted in support of the observance, a message that the Prime Minister later endorsed.
“I fail to understand what kind of awareness this is meant to generate,” Rokde remarked. He further argued that the Emergency remains a subject of historical debate, with scholars offering divergent interpretations of its necessity and impact.
“Even today, the public remains unclear about the real reasons behind the Emergency,” he said.
Rokde also questioned the legitimacy of pensions granted to those identified as MISA detainees - individuals imprisoned under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act during the Emergency.
The Madhya Pradesh government gives Rs 15000-25000 as pension. “If a law is misused, does the government compensate the affected with pensions? There is no such precedent,” he said.
He alleged that many of those receiving benefits under the MISA category were never actually detained under the law and called for a thorough investigation into the matter.
Likening the Emergency-era struggle to the freedom movement, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, noting MISA detainees are now honoured as Loktantra Senani. He called June 25, 1975, a dark day in democratic history.
On the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, the Chief Minister said that patriots from the Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh played a pivotal role in defending India’s democracy.
He hailed leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Morarji Desai for their unified resistance. The petition filed in the High Court is expected to reignite debate over how the Emergency should be remembered—and whether political symbolism is overshadowing historical nuance. The state unit of the BJP has yet not responded to the press conference.
--IANS
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