The dark days of Emergency can never be forgotten: PM Narendra Modi

On the 46th anniversary of declaration of Emergency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the `Congress trampled over our democratic ethos`. On June 25, 1975, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of Emergency across the country.

After Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Emergency was imposed in the nation to quell the voices against one family and termed it as a dark chapter in the history of independent India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took to Twitter to voice his opinion against the "dark days of Emergency". Emergency was declared for a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution due to the prevailing "internal disturbance", the Emergency was in effect from June 25, 1975, until its withdrawal on March 21, 1977.

Narendra Modi took to social media to say that the nation will never forget the dark days of the Emergency. "The #DarkDaysOfEmergency can never be forgotten. The period from 1975 to 1977 witnessed a systematic destruction of institutions. Let us pledge to do everything possible to strengthen India’s democratic spirit, and live up to the values enshrined in our Constitution."

He also tweeted on how Congress destroyed the country's democratic ethos.

The goal of the 21-month-long Emergency in the country was to control “internal disturbance”, for which the constitutional rights were suspended and freedom of speech and the press withdrawn. The order vested upon the Prime Minister the authority to rule by decree, allowing elections to be suspended and civil liberties to be curbed.