TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: “I became anti-Congress and decided not to go into this party after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country on June 25, 1975,” Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday.
“Gandhi-led Congress party tried to bring Hitler-ship in India and not BJP, as now claimed by opponents,” Parrikar said, while addressing BJP state executive meeting Tuesday.
The Chief Minister said that Congress at the Centre and in Goa was in adulation of Indira Gandhi in 1975 and even today.
Pointing to the Internal Emergency imposed by Gandhi in 1975, Parrikar said “that was the incident which made me anti-Congress leader and I decided not to go into this party at any cost for political fortune’.
Appealing to the people of the country, Parrikar said “never again should the people of India ever allow another Internal Emergency to be imposed on India by self-seeking Indian politicians”.
“We will teach Congress a good lesson in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections,” he added.
On the occasion, Goa Legislative Assembly speaker Rajendra Arlekar was commended for his contribution during the emergency, wherein he was one amongst those arrested by police.
Recalling the incident, Arlekar said that the Indian Emergency of 25 June 1975 to March 21, 1977 was a 21-month period. “It is one of the most controversial periods in the history of independent India…There was a terror atmosphere everywhere,” he said.
“The government used police force across the country to arrest thousands of protestors and strike leaders. Fundamental Rights stood suspended, censorship was imposed on the press,” he recalled.
The then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties.
