Anti-Emergency movement was learning experience for me: PM Modi

New Delhi: With a book chronicling his role in the Emergency being released on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the period was a learning experience for him and reaffirmed the vitality of preserving the democratic framework.

'The Emergency Diaries - Years that Forged a Leader', which highlights Modi's fight for the "the ideals of democracy", is published by BlueKraft.

Modi said the book chronicles his journey during the Emergency years. It brought back many memories from that time, he said.

He said on X, "I call upon all those who remember those dark days of the Emergency or those whose families suffered during that time to share their experiences on social media. It will create awareness among the youth of the shameful time from 1975 to 1977." The prime minister recalled that he was a young RSS pracharak during the period.

He said, "The anti-Emergency movement was a learning experience for me. It reaffirmed the vitality of preserving our democratic framework. At the same time, I got to learn so much from people across the political spectrum." He added, "I am glad that BlueKraft Digital Foundation has compiled some of those experiences in the form of a book, whose foreword has been penned by Shri HD Deve Gowda Ji, himself a stalwart of the anti-Emergency movement." The publisher in a post said the book delves into the compelling role Modi played in the fight against the Emergency.

Based on first person anecdotes from associates who worked with Modi in his youth, and using other archival material, the book is a first of its kind that creates new scholarship on the formative years of a young man who would give it his all in the fight against tyranny, it said.

It added, "Emergency Diaries - paints a vivid picture of Narendra Modi fighting for the ideals of democracy and how he has worked all his life to preserve and promote it." This book is a tribute to the grit and resolve of those who refused to be silenced, BlueKraft said, and it offers a rare glimpse into the early trials that forged one of the most transformative leaders of our time.

In his comments on the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, Modi recalled the suppression of civil liberties, including the arrest of opposition leaders and activists besides the censorship on media, and said it was as if the then Congress government had put democracy under arrest.