President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday addressed the joint sitting of the Parliament and raked up the imposition of Emergency by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975, terming the decision as the "biggest attack on the Constitution".
President Murmu said that the "Constitution of India has stood up to every challenge and every test in the past. Even when the Constitution was in the making, there were forces in the world who wished India to fail. Even after the Constitution came into force, it was attacked many times."
Addressing a joint sitting of the Houses after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha, President Murmu said, "Today is 27th June. The imposition of Emergency on June 25, 1975, was the biggest and darkest chapter of direct attack on the Constitution. The entire country felt outraged. But the country emerged victorious over such unconstitutional forces as the traditions of the republic lie at the core of India."
President Murmu‘s reference to the Emergency drew loud applause from the NDA leaders and noisy protests by some opposition members. The ruling dispensation is cornering the Congress and the opposition over the 1975 Emergency, which completed 49 years on June 26.
President Murmu said that the "Constitution of India has stood up to every challenge and every test in the past. Even when the Constitution was in the making, there were forces in the world who wished India to fail. Even after the Constitution came into force, it was attacked many times."
Lauding the BJP-led NDA government, President Murmu further said that the government is making efforts to ensure that the Constitution of India "becomes a part of public consciousness". Her remarks came amid the Opposition’s attacks on the BJP, accusing the ruling party of undermining the Constitution. The Opposition MPs have been holding up copies of the Constitution inside the Parliament since the start of the session earlier this week.
"My Government also does not consider the Constitution of India as just a medium of governance; rather we are making efforts to ensure that our Constitution becomes a part of public consciousness," the President said, adding, "With this objective in mind, my Government has started celebrating November 26 as Constitution Day".
Her remarks come close on the heels of the heated exchange between the ruling BJP and the Opposition. INDIA bloc parties have repeatedly said that over the last 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government being in power, an "undeclared Emergency" is in force, while the Union ministers have highlighted the horrors of the Emergency imposed in 1975 by then Indira Gandhi government.
Earlier on Wednesday, newly-elected Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also condemned the imposition of Emergency during his address and set off a firestorm by reading out a resolution terming it as an attack on the Constitution by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Speaker’s resolution triggered vociferous protests by Congress members in the House.
Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also criticised the state of Emergency imposed in 1975. Addressing the media in the Parliament complex ahead of the start of the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha on June 24, PM Modi had termed the Emergency a black spot in India’s parliamentary history when the Constitution was discarded and the country turned into a prison.
On June 25, 1975, at midnight, the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declared a state of Emergency in India following advice from the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s ‘Emergency’ Reference Triggers Protests, Sloganeering By Opposition Members
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