"Democracy was being murdered, we had no rights": Survivor recalls ordeal during Emergency
New Delhi [India], June 25 (ANI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah greeted Sumita Arya, a survivor of the Emergency era, and presented her with a copy of the Indian Constitution during an event commemorating 50 years since the imposition of the Emergency in 1975.
The event highlighted the struggles faced by those who endured the dark period in Indian democracy.
Sumita Arya, who was imprisoned along with her three children and eight other family members during the Emergency, recounted the harrowing experiences of that time.
'The democracy was being murdered. She (Indira Gandhi) was doing everything as per her will... We could not speak up about the atrocities we were facing. She knew she would lose the power, so she started filling the jails. We faced a food crisis, and the quality of the available food was poor... All 11 members of my family were jailed... We had no rights...' she told ANI.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while addressing the programme on 50 years of Emergency at Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya, said that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency as she saw a threat to her power, and there was no external danger or internal unrest.
'Today is the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Emergency... There may arise a question why something that happened 50 years ago is being discussed now... When 50 years of any national event are completed, good or bad, its memory fades away in society. If the memory of an event like the Emergency that shook the democracy fades away, then that is harmful to the nation,' he said.
'Today, we are the world's largest democracy and the reason we overcame a dark chapter like the Emergency is because our nation never bows down to dictatorship. The world has witnessed the birth of democracy on this soil. India is the mother of democracy,' he added.
Amit Shah said the first non-Congress government was formed in the country in the general elections held after the Emergency.
'At that time, no one would have liked the Emergency except for the dictators and the small group that benefited from it... They had an illusion that no one could challenge them, but after the Emergency, when the first Lok Sabha elections were held, for the first time after independence, a non-Congress government was formed and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister,' he said.
'It is difficult to define the Emergency in a single sentence. I have tried to come up with a definition. The conspiracy to convert a multi-party democracy of a democratic country in a dictatorship is a Emergency,' he added.
He said the Modi government decided to observe June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas so that 'the country remembers how a nation suffers when its leaders turn into dictators'. (ANI)
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