Mumbai/New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday unleashed a stinging attack on the Congress, saying its “mad devotion” to the Gandhi family had turned the country into a jail during the Emergency, and 43 years later the party’s psyche of sycophancy had still not changed.
Speaking at a BJP event to mark the imposition of Emergency by Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975, Mr Modi dubbed the 21-month period -- a black spot on Indian democracy when hundreds of opposition leaders were jailed -- as a “sin of the party”.
“We would never have imagined that in the lust for power and the mad devotion to a family, those who talk big things about democracy and the Constitution had turned the country into a jail... for selfish personal interests of that family. Big leaders were put behind bars,” Mr Modi said.
“An atmosphere of fear prevailed then. We will rarely find another example of how the Constitution was misused as a tool for a family,” he said in a fierce attack to counter opposition accusations that India was under “undeclared Emergency" under the BJP rule. He said the Congress was “spreading illusionary fears” about the Constitution being tampered with, and Dalits and minorities being in danger.
“The Congress can never improve. For promotion of self interest, they destroyed their own party,” he said.
Whenever the Congress party and “this family” senses loss of power, it starts “crying” that the country is passing through a crisis and that only it can save the country, he said, without naming the Gandhis. Mr Modi said there was no difference in the “psyche” of the Congress during Emergency and now.
Mr Modi also listed many of the restrictions during the Emergency. “When (iconic Bollywood singer) Kishore Kumar ji refused to sing for them (the Congress) during Emer-gency, his songs were not allowed to be played on the radio,” he said, adding media persons were banned from writing anything against the then government.
