BJP to observe ‘Black Day’ today to mark anniversary of Emergency
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New Delhi: The BJP on Monday announced the party would observe a nationwide programme today to mark the country entering the 50 the anniversary of the Emergency declared in 1975.
The saffron party claimed it would ‘expose’ the “Congress party’s authoritarianism” and ‘disregard for the Constitution’, The Hindu reported.
Anil Baluni, Lok Sabha MP and the BJP’s media cell head, said that the party president J.P. Nadda would address party workers in New Delhi on the theme ‘Dark days of democracy’.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh will organise seminars at the district level on the Emergency Protest Day on Tuesday which is being observed as Black Day.
BJP State Vice President Trimbak Tripathi said that the Emergency imposed by the Congress on June 25, 1975 led to the murder of democracy, violation of human rights and other types of atrocities on the countrymen.
“It is remembered in history as a Black Day,” he said.
Tripathi said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, state party president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak will participate in the programs organised by the party on the occasion of Black Day.
He said that ministers, party officials and senior leaders of the state government will participate in the programs to be held at the district level in the entire state.
Remembering the atrocities committed during the Emergency, the programs will honour MISA prisoners at the district level and a pledge of commitment to protect democracy will also be taken in the programs.
On June 25, 1975, then Prime Minister, the late Indira Gandhi, announced the imposition of Emergency, which lasted for 21 months, in a broadcast on All India Radio.
The announcement came shortly after the Supreme Court ordered a conditional stay to an Allahabad High Court verdict declaring her election to the Lok Sabha null and void.
The Emergency turned out to be a period of forced mass sterilisation, censorship of the press, suspension of Constitutional rights, and centralisation of power.
With inputs from IANS