India Today ‘journalist’ and husband of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose, Rajdeep Sardesai, tried to downplay the Emergency imposed on the country by former PM Indira Gandhi.
Speaking at the ‘Neta Nagri’ show of The Lallantop, Sardesai said raising the issue of the Emergency at present would take away the limelight from current problems. He further added that Congress emerged victorious in elections even after gagging the whole of India during the dark period of Emergency, implying that people had moved on and once again accepted the party.
He said, “North India faced the major brunt of the emergency. India Gandhi and Congress managed to win and dominate in South India in 1977. However, they didn’t manage to sweep Maharashtra like they did in the North. Now, you are telling the young people in 2024, the kids who belong to today’s generation or were born after the emergency and are between 18 to 38 years of age, to learn what happened on 25th June. You cannot do politics from the rearview mirror.”
“If you keep revisiting the past how will you tackle today’s challenges including, unemployment, inflation, Agniveer, NEET-UG paper leak, terror attacks in Jammu, violence in Manipur, and floods in Bihar?” Sardesai said.
How shameless can @SardesaiRajdeep be?
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) July 13, 2024
To get Rajya Sabha seat just like his wife, he's now ready to defend even Indira's Emergency!
– Says Indira won in South, so Emergency is only North India issue
– Emergency is old issue, we shld not talk about it.
But same Rajdeep will… pic.twitter.com/ueiCY3SQgx
Notably, the comments followed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government pronounced 26th June as the “Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas” (Constitution Murder Day) to pay tribute to the victims of the emergency. The Union Home Ministry on 11th July issued a gazette notification saying that the Government of India has declared 25th June as “Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas.”
The notification states that a proclamation of Emergency was made on 25th June 1975, following which there was gross abuse of power by the Government of the day and the people of India were subjected to excesses and atrocities. It adds that the people of India have abiding faith in the Constitution of India and the power of India’s resilient democracy.
“Therefore, the Government of India declares 25th June as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas (संविधान हत्या दिवस)’ to pay tribute to all those who suffered and fought against the gross abuse of power during the period of Emergency and to recommit the people of India to not support in any manner such gross abuse of power, in future,” the notification further added.
