'India rejects dictatorship': Shah targets Cong

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that India “will never accept dictatorship”, as he criticised the Congress for imposing the Emergency under the Indira Gandhi government in 1975.

“Today, we are the world’s largest democracy and the reason we overcame a dark chapter like the Emergency is because our nation never bows down to dictatorship," Shah said while addressing an event in the national capital to mark 50 years of the Emergency.

Challenging the I.N.D.I.A alliance’s ‘save Constitution’ narrative against the Narendra Modi government, Shah asked whether the then Congress leadership had taken the Opposition into confidence before promulgating the Emergency orders on June 25, 1975.

“Today, some people preach about the sanctity of the Constitution. Remember the morning when Indira Gandhi announced the Emergency on All India Radio. Was Parliament consulted before this? Were the Opposition leaders and citizens taken into confidence? Those who talk about protecting democracy today — were you the rakshaks (protectors) of the Constitution back then, or its bhakshaks (destroyers)? They claimed the Emergency was declared to protect the nation. But the truth is, it was declared to protect their own power," Shah said.

In 2024, the Modi government announced that June 25 would be observed annually as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’, or the day the Constitution was murdered.

The Union Ministry of Culture is planning a year-long programme to commemorate 50 years since the Emergency. In a message to states, the ministry requested that events be organised throughout the year to highlight what it called a “stark reminder of the darkest period in India’s democratic history".