Facing 'Undeclared Emergency' Charge, BJP Marks ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’ with Book Starring Modi

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress on Wednesday (June 25) crossed swords on the 50th anniversary of the imposition of the Emergency by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself commemorated the event as a period during which “democracy was placed under arrest” and then went on to promote a book which chronicled his time as a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker during the Emergency.

Union home minister Amit Shah subsequently released the same book on Wednesday evening and said it was “divine justice” that the ‘25-year-old boy’ (Modi) who had opposed the Emergency that was imposed to preserve dynastic politics, was the one who uprooted it in 2014.

As posters of ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’ were seen across the national capital and the BJP asked states to commemorate the event, in a bid to counter the BJP’s narrative Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on the other hand addressed a press conference, calling the BJP’s observance of the day as a “drama” meant to divert attention from its governance failures.

Meanwhile, other opposition parties accused the Modi-led government of imposing an “undeclared emergency” over the past decade.

Modi in a statement on X in English on Wednesday said that the “people of India” mark June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas and said that the then-Congress government had “placed democracy under arrest”.

“On this day, the values enshrined in the Indian constitution were set aside, fundamental rights were suspended, press freedom was extinguished and several political leaders, social workers, students and ordinary citizens were jailed. It was as if the Congress government in power at that time placed democracy under arrest!

In a series of posts, Modi saluted those who fought against the Emergency and said that it was their “collective struggle that ensured that the then-Congress government had to restore democracy and call for fresh elections, which they badly lost”.

“We also reiterate our commitment to strengthening the principles in our constitution and working together to realise our vision of a Viksit Bharat. May we scale new heights of progress and fulfil the dreams of the poor and downtrodden,” he said.

Shah and others release ‘The Emergency Diaries’. Photo: X/@amitshah.

Shortly afterwards, Modi then shifted focus to how as a young RSS worker, the Emergency to him was a “learning experience”, adding that this has been chronicled in the book to be released later in the evening and which includes a foreword by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

“When the Emergency was imposed, I was a young RSS pracharak. The anti-Emergency movement was a learning experience for me. It reaffirmed the vitality of preserving our democratic framework. At the same time, I got to learn so much from people across the political spectrum.

“I am glad that BlueKraft Digital Foundation has compiled some of those experiences in the form of a book, whose foreword has been penned by H.D. Deve Gowda ji, himself a stalwart of the anti-Emergency movement,” said Modi.

On Wednesday evening, the book, titled The Emergency Diaries – Years that Forged a Leader in New Delhi, was released by Shah in the presence of Union information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Delhi lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta.

Shah spoke about Modi's role as an RSS worker going door to door with pamphlets to protest against the Emergency.

“The book chronicles his experiences as a young activist during the Emergency, a period in which he was actively involved in the movement for 19 months. At that time, secret newspapers were published and Modi played a key role in distributing them in marketplaces, among students and to women. Modi worked underground disguised as a sadhu, a sardarji, a hippie, an incense stick seller, or a newspaper vendor,” said Shah.

“Look at how divine justice takes place. The 25-year-old boy who opposed Indira Gandhi's dictatorship by going door to door [in] villages … that same person in 2014 uprooted the reason for which the Emergency was imposed: dynasty politics,” he said.

Shah said that memories of the Emergency must be kept alive “so that it is never repeated and so that the youth of the nation [grow up] cultured and organised”.

“That is why the prime minister decided to commemorate June 25 as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas',” he said.

‘BJP staging drama’

In a bid to counter the BJP’s commemoration, Kharge held a press conference and called Samvidhan Hatya Diwas a “drama” being staged by the BJP to hide its failures.

Kharge said that those who ‘played no role in the independence of the country, in framing the constitution and rejected Babasaheb Ambedkar's constitution” are raking up the Emergency 50 years after it was imposed.

“Those who had rejected the constitution claiming that it does not have elements of Indian culture and the Manusmriti – these people have become suddenly enlightened when the Congress has been conducting a ‘Samvidhan Bachao Yatra’ for the last one year. This has rattled the BJP. That is why they are talking about the Emergency that was imposed 50 years ago," said Kharge.

“Those people who failed in governance, their failure is such that the people are concerned about inflation [but] the government has no answer to unemployment, corruption and economic failure,” said Kharge, adding that the ruling party is “staging this drama” to hide “their failures” and “the lies they have spread”.

In a bid to counter the criticism against Indira Gandhi, the Rajya Sabha leader of opposition said that it was the former prime minister who had supported the Morarji Desai government when it brought a Bill to amend the provisions enabling the imposition of the Emergency, referring to the the 44th Amendment in 1978 that replaced “internal disturbance” as one of the reasons for imposing an emergency with “armed rebellion”.

Kharge addresses a press conference in Delhi on June 25, 2025. Photo: PTI.

‘Undeclared emergency’

In a separate statement, the Congress also said that Indian democracy has been under a “systematic and dangerous” five-fold assault that can be best described as “Undeclared Emergency@11”.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 50 years after the Emergency, “we’re facing an undeclared emergency under the Sangh parivar regime, enforced through majoritarianism”.

“Haunting memories of the Emergency should empower us to fight against the oppressive forces that challenge the essence of our democracy today,” he said.

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose said that the Emergency was a “blot” but that the same Indira Gandhi “called elections, resigned and took questions in public”.

“Why doesn’t  Narendra Modi hold a press conference like this first instead of busily trying to copy from the Emergency,” she said, sharing a video of Gandhi addressing the press.

Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Kumar Jha said that while the Emergency was a dark period, it should be used as a “mirror”.

“There is no doubt that June 25, 1975 marks a dark chapter in our democracy. Yet, when we commemorate that day, it should not be viewed merely as a bygone episode but rather used as a mirror,” he said.

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