New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led central government Friday declared that 25 June will be observed annually as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ (Murder of Constitution Day) to commemorate the people who “suffered and fought” in the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
The Ministry of Home Affairs released a gazette notification and said 25 June — the date in 1975 when Gandhi imposed the Emergency — would be the day to pay tribute to people who suffered during the 21-month period from 1975 to 1977.
The notification read: “Whereas, a proclamation of Emergency was made on 25th June, 1975, following which there was gross abuse of power by the Government of the day and people of India were subjected to excesses and atrocities; And whereas, people of India have abiding faith in the Constitution of India and the power of India’s resilient democracy. Therefore, Government of India declares 25th June as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ to pay tribute to all those who suffered and fought against the gross abuse of power during the period of Emergency and to recommit the people of India to not support in any manner such gross abuse of power, in future.”
Taking to microblogging site X, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that Indira Gandhi had shown her “dictatorial mindset” and had “strangled the soul of our democracy” by imposing the Emergency on the nation.
“Lakhs of people were thrown behind bars for no fault of their own, and the voice of the media was silenced. The Government of India has decided to observe the 25th of June every year as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. This day will commemorate the massive contributions of all those who endured the inhuman pains of the 1975 Emergency,” he further wrote on his timeline.
“The observance of ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ will help keep the eternal flame of individual freedom and the defence of our democracy alive in every Indian, thus preventing dictatorial forces like the Congress from repeating those horrors,” he wrote.
The Congress termed the move a “headline-grabbing exercise” and alleged that the current government had imposed an “undeclared emergency” for the last 10 years.
General secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Modi was handed a “decisive personal, political, and moral” defeat and that 4 June — when the Lok Sabha election results were declared — would go down in history as “ModiMukti Diwas.”
Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Rajya Sabha MP and chief spokesperson Manoj Jha also attacked the Modi government and raised the alleged misuse of agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation in jailing elected public representatives and activists.
Offering an alternative name for 25 June, Jha said: “This government itself has torn into democracy but I will refrain from using the word ‘murder’ because that’s in their ideological trends. I would rather argue that Shaheed Diwas observed on 30 January when the father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi was killed should be called ‘Gandhi Murder Day’ and the ideological allegiance of the killer should be brought out in public. This should have been called ‘Samvidhan Sankalp Divas’ and people in government should read the Constitution to build a society based on it.”
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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