The Emergency episode should be part of curriculum so that the new generation is sensitised to the "dreaded events of 1975-77", Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said today, stressing that it is part of the country's history that cannot be "suppressed".
In the backdrop of a growing debate on intolerance in the society, he said that a citizen can disagree with others' views but must learn to respect the others and that the "core Indian values have no place for intolerance".
"On the 43rd anniversary of the Emergency, I would like the message to go out that any citizen who violates the freedoms of fellow citizens will have no right to be called an Indian. It is because he is hurting the Constitution of India and all that India stood for, he said at a book launch event.
He spoke at length on the "fallacious" causes and consequences of the Emergency, imposed on this day in 1975 by the then Congress government led by Indira Gandhi.
The vice president released Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Gujarati versions of Emergency: Indian Democracy's Darkest Hour', written by Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash.
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I feel that this Emergency, which is the darkest period of Indian democracy, should form part of curriculum so that the present generations are sensitised to the dreaded events of 1975-77 and they learn to value the democratic freedoms they enjoy today.
The issue is not of this party or that party. I am not into that. I am vice president (and) don't want to take the name of any political party. It is part of history. You can't suppress history. You must allow the new generation to know the history, Naidu said.
Stating that no sensible government would dare to resort to such a measure after the resounding pro-democracy verdict of the people in 1977, Naidu said that now the threat to individual freedoms is from some misguided citizens.
I am confident that no sensible government would repeat what was done during the fateful night of June 25, 1975. That was clearly a state-sponsored intolerance to democracy and individual freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. But we need to guard against intolerance on the part of certain misguided citizens, he said.
The vice president said that the country has been occasionally witnessing some words and deeds of intolerance by some citizens in the name of so-called cow protection, 'love jihad', eating habits and watching films.
Such incidents lead us to the point that individual freedoms can be in full play only when every citizen respects such freedoms of fellow citizens. Post Emergency, the state apparatus would think twice before riding roughshod over the liberties and freedoms of citizens. But it is enlightened citizens who would enable fuller manifestation of such liberties and freedoms, he said.
Naidu said that the core Indian values and ethos have no place for intolerance due to which all the major religions of the world are flourishing in India.
On the 43rd anniversary of Emergency, I would like the message to go out that any citizen who violates the freedoms of fellow citizens would have no right to be called an Indian. It is because he is hurting the Constitution of India and all that India stood for, he said.
Referring to his own imprisonment of over 17 months during the Emergency, Naidu listed 33 aberrations of that period, which he said sterilised democracy in the country, destroyed the Constitution and deprived the citizens of their right to life and liberty.
He expressed concern over the way the Executive became dictatorial, Parliament abdicated its responsibility to the Executive and Judiciary sank to its lowest during the Emergency.
Naidu referred to strangulation of media during the Emergency through various measures which include police officers becoming the editors of newspapers censoring news, snapping electricity supply to prevent publication of newspapers, arrest and harassment of upright journalists and their family members, stopping of advertisements to newspapers critical of the Emergency, abolition of the Press Council and Parliament passing various laws stifling media.
He referred to how Prime Minister Narendra Modi as RSS Pracharak during those days led the underground movement and played a key role in helping the families of those jailed by the government, besides organising secret resistance meetings.
Referring to the heroes and villains of the Emergency period, Naidu described the then Supreme Court Judge H R Khanna as one of the great heroes for defending the fundamental rights of citizens and differing with four fellow judges.
Ramnath Goenka of The Indian Express was among the other heroes, he said.
Emergency should not be bandied about casually or irresponsibly. Emergency means dictatorship and the worst abuse of executive power, Naidu said.
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