Soon after getting elected as the Lok Sabha Speaker for the second time, Om Birla on Wednesday condemned the decision to impose the Emergency in 1975 and observed a two-minute silence in the memory of the citizens who lost their lives during the period, triggering vociferous protests and sloganeering from the Opposition.
Speaking in the House after being elected, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla, said the democratic values of India were crushed and freedom of expression was strangled during the “dark period” of the Emergency. PM Modi lauded Birla for his remarks.
The Congress party, which is the Opposition party, expectedly reacted sharply.
The Congress has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla saying the “political references” on Emergency made by him during the proceedings of the House on Wednesday were “deeply shocking” and “unprecedented in the annals of history of Parliament”.
President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday stressed the government’s unwavering faith in the Constitution and efforts to make it a part of “public consciousness”, while slamming the Emergency as the “biggest and darkest chapter of direct attack” on the Constitution. This shows that the BJP has learnt nothing from its reverses in Lok Sabha elections.
With BJP not able to manage a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own, it was hoped that instead of attacking the Opposition every time, like it did in the preceding 10 years of its rule, one hoped that it will make a fresh beginning this time and lay the pathway for holistic development of the country. But that does not seem to be the case.
No doubt Emergency was a dark chapter in the history of our democracy. On the night of June 25, 1975, the then Indira Gandhi's government declared a nationwide Emergency. By dawn, non-Congress leaders across the country were arrested. Protests against Indira Gandhi erupted nationwide. Media and political freedom were curtailed.
Serious charges were brought against the government during the Emergency, including detention of people without charges, torture of detainees and political prisoners, and large scale and illegal enactment of laws. The Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was the much-abused statute.
Several leaders linked to the Sangh Parivar, Jana Sangh (now BJP), including former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Union minister late Arun Jaitley, who had actively opposed the Emergency, bore the brunt of Indira Gandhi’s crackdown on the Opposition. It is therefore a no-brainer that the BJP government loves to rake up the Emergency period at every given opportunity.
Although there is no doubt that the Emergency was a blot on our post-Independence history, the ruling establishment also could not escape unscathed, for soon after lifting the Emergency, the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government at the Centre fell after people voted against the party. But all this happened 49 years ago and the world has moved ahead.
Also, we are supposed to learn from history to prevent it from getting repeated. However, as we see, we seem to learn nothing from history and the same mistakes are repeated. Same is the case with the Narendra Modi government, which has been ruling the country for the last 10 years with an iron fist, as the prevailing situation is like an undeclared Emergency.
This did not go down well with the voters and that is why BJP’s seat share in the Lok Sabha fell drastically. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 303 seats in a commanding victory. But in this election, it managed only 240 seats, which is well below the majority mark of 272. But the BJP has seemingly not learnt from this steep decline.
Be it stifling the voice of the Opposition and civil society representatives by imprisoning them, controlling the media, overturning the orders of even the Supreme Court, feeding the country with the poison of communalism, politicising the armed forces…the list of the government’s past follies are endless.
Instead of mentioning the ‘E’ word every time, the Modi government would do well to introspect and see what it is doing. Its actions resemble that of the Indira Gandhi government taken during the Emergency. So when we compare the two eras, we find that there is no difference between the actions of the two governments; in fact, the current situation is even worse, as it also brings the country into disrepute.
In the internet era, the world is closely watching and reacting to what our government is doing. Instead of schooling others about democratic values, we will do good to preserve them on ground through actions, not words.