Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Emergency imposed in 1975 was the darkest chapter of a direct attack on the Constitution, President Droupadi Murmu said today in her address to a joint sitting of Parliament. This is her first address to Parliament after the general election elected a new Lok Sabha.
The Constitution, she said, has stood up to every challenge and every test in the past decades. “Today is 27th June. The imposition of Emergency on 25th June, 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,” she said, amid cheers from the treasury benches and protests by the Opposition. Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar echoed the President on the Emergency and said it had “attacked the Constitution”.
The President’s remark comes against the backdrop of a heated exchange between the ruling BJP and the Opposition on Emergency. While central ministers, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have stressed on the horrors of the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government, the Congress and its allies have said an “undeclared emergency” is in the force over the past 10 years of NarendraModi government.
The President’s remarks also play out in the context of the Opposition’s Constitution push. In demonstrations outside the House and proceedings inside it, Opposition MPs have been holding up copies of the Constitution and accusing the ruling party of undermining it.
“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 in her address
