On a day when several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders took on the Congress over the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a statement issued by the Congress in party-ruled Chhattisgarh called it a “ samvaidhanik vyavastha” or “constitutional system”.
As has been the case over the years, on Saturday — the 47th anniversary of the declaration of Emergency — most Congress leaders avoided making any public statements on the topic. However, according to the statement issued by the Chhattisgarh Congress media in-charge Sushil Anand Shukla “...the Emergency was a constitutional step taken according to the then circumstances of the country”.
The statement “issued in response to the statements made by BJP leaders in context of Emergency”, further went on to add that “Emergency was imposed by the then Central Government under Article 352 of the Constitution. Emergency was imposed by the President on the advice of the Union Cabinet after the approval of the Parliament of the country”.
In March last year, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi had said the Emergency was a “mistake”.
Mr. Shukla later said that he stood by his statement and added if indeed the provision of Emergency was unconstitutional then the subsequent (post-Indira Gandhi) governments in the country should have abolished it.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and other senior Ministers of his Cabinet were unavailable for a comment.
‘BJP’s undeclared Emergency’
Attacking the BJP and the way it is ruling the country, Mr. Shukla’s statement added that the central government had imposed an undeclared and extra-constitutional emergency in the entire country. He cited the use of investigating agencies to “suppress the voices of dissent and intimidate the leaders of the Opposition”. It questioned the manner in which the BJP had formed governments in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka by “usurping the mandate”. It further asked if engineering a defection in the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra or the Agnipath recruitment scheme weren’t symptomatic of an emergency-like situation.
“The autonomy of important constitutional institutions of the country has been destroyed. For the first time in the history of independent India, four justices of the Supreme Court of the country had to come before the media and the people of the country to express their views. The impartiality of the Election Commission became questionable,” the statement added.
