25th June, the black day of Indian democracy, officially declared as “Samvidhan Hatya Diwas”

The BJP-led NDA government on Friday officially decided to celebrate June 25 as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ every year, to celebrate the contribution of all those who suffered atrocities due to the imposition of emergency in the Indira Gandhi regime in 1975. It was on 25th June, when Indira Gandhi on the advice of his son Sanjay Gandhi announced an emergency that marked the darkest hour of the Indian democracy. Following the announcement major opposition leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jaiprakash Narayan, George Fernandez, and others were imprisoned, the press became subservient to the dictatorial regime with electricity blackouts and the freedom of speech was crushed under the dictates of 10, Akbar Road.

The BJP since its inception in 1980, marked the day as the “death of Indian democracy” and over the years, the saffron party popularised the deeds of the Congress party. Making it official, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, wrote on his X handle “On 25 June 1975, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, showing her dictatorial mindset, strangled the soul of Indian democracy by imposing emergency in the country. Lakhs of people were jailed without any reason and the voice of the media was suppressed. The Government of India has decided to celebrate 25 June yearly as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’. This day will remind us of the immense contribution of all those who suffered the inhuman pain of the Emergency of 1975.”

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called it a “black spot” in India’s democracy, recently during the first session of the new Lok Sabha. Interestingly, PM Modi was among the leaders who disguised themselves into a different avatar to escape the bars. Modi, who went underground, turning himself into a Sardar during the emergency, on various occasions remembered the dark era of emergency in the past too. 

The senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described the move as a “headline-grabbing exercise” by the BJP and in turn accused PM Modi of “systematic assault” on the constitution. Taking to X, Ramesh wrote, “Yet another headline-grabbing exercise in hypocrisy by the non-biological PM who had imposed an undeclared Emergency for ten long years before the people of India handed him a decisive personal, political, and moral defeat on June 4, 2024 – which will go down in history as ModiMukti Diwas. This is a non-biological PM who has subjected the Constitution of India and its principles, values, and institutions to systematic assault. This is a non-biological PM whose ideological parivar had rejected the Constitution of India in Nov 1949 because it did not derive inspiration from Manusmriti. This is a non-biological PM for whom democracy means only ‘demo-kursi’,”.