By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, June 26: The BJP today observed black day as a mark of their protest against the living memory of yester century – emergency – imposed in the country by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
It was on the night of June 25, 1975 the former Prime Minister declared emergency apparently to tackle the situation arising out of economic and political instability in the country at that time.
Depicting a vivid picture of the emergency days at Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra in the city today, Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra, who was a victim of the emergency order, said: “The situation in the country on June 25 and June 26, 1975 had many a stark contrast. People, who were enjoying independence since August 15, 1947, lost their freedom all of a sudden. They lost their freedom of speech and expression, besides all fundamental rights. They were not even allowed to discuss anything after reading a newspaper, let alone making any statement. The emergency had its impact in Assam as well. Poet ba Kanta Baruah and present MP Ramen Deka as a young man had to register their protest. Indira Gandhi acted at her whims. However, the emergency led her earning bad reputation in such a degree that she had to bite the dust in the very next Lok Sabha election, paving the way for the Jata Dal to form the government.”
Earlier, Guwahati MP Bijaya Chakroborty appealed to the government at the Centre to consider some steps to honour the victims of the Emergency. “Freedom fighters are getting pensions. The victims of the Emergency had to suffer a lot, including imprisonment. The government at the Centre could think of honouring them by paying pension and facilities like free of cost train travel,” she said.
MP Ramen Deka, who is also a tiol general secretary of the BJP, said: “My memory serves me well to feel the impact of the emergency in Assam. We were dead against the order. Jagdish Sarma had to give up his job in a bank to dedicate himself in the protest against the emergency order. I, however, regret that we were not invited by the BJP while observing the completion of 25 years of the emergency. However, I was invited by the RSS later. Now, I draw consolation from the fact that the Sangh didn’t forget us.”
State BJP president Ranjit Kumar Dass, Dispur MLA Atul Bora and others also termed the emergency as murder of democracy. They said that the emergency had been a rerun of the Raj rule in the country.
