Indore, Jun 27 (PTI) Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh on Friday alleged an ‘undeclared Emergency’ has been in force in the country for the last 11 years under the BJP rule, while the rights limiting measure officially proclaimed in 1975 was now a ’50-year-old thing’.
Then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, heading a Congress government, had imposed the Emergency in the country on June 25, 1975 on the grounds of internal disturbance. The proclamation under Article 352 of the Constitution led to suspension of civil rights, arrest of opposition leaders, dissidents and press censorship.
Asked by reporters in Indore about the BJP’s campaign against the Congress on the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, marked as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’ (‘Constitution Murder Day’), Singh alleged several people had been arrested in an unconstitutional manner and freedom of expression muzzled since 2014 when the saffron party came to power at the Centre.
“The Emergency is a 50-year-old thing. Under your (BJP) rule, there has been an undeclared Emergency in the country for the last 11 years. The right of expression of citizens is being snatched away. This is even more dangerous,” the former Madhya Pradesh CM alleged.
The Congress veteran hit out at RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale for his comments demanding an apology from the Grand Old Party for imposing the 1975-77 Emergency.
“Why does he (Hosabale) forget that then-RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras had supported the Emergency?” Singh averred.
The former CM claimed that for the first time in India’s history, the culture department of the central government issued an official directive to run a campaign against the Emergency.
Asked about the ongoing controversy in adjoining Maharashtra over teaching Hindi to students from Classes 1 to 5 in Marathi and English medium schools, he said, “Every person has the right to teach his children in his mother tongue. This right is recognised in the three-language formula.” The former chief minister termed the recent anti-encroachment action of the forest department in the Kheoni Wildlife Sanctuary of Dewas district as “inhuman” and alleged injustice was being done to tribals by destroying their homes during the monsoon. PTI HWP MAS RSY
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