Attacking Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah said the possibility of Emergency cannot be ruled out as long as parties run by dynasty have a chance to rule the country.
He said it is parties run by “dictatorial mindset” which can think about bringing Emergency and asked the people to vote for an ideology and not an individual if they want to avoid such a scenario again.
“If you vote for an individual, Emergency will come yet again. If you vote for an ideology and a party, then Emergency will never come,” Shah said while addressing an event - Loktantra ka Kala Din (Black Day of Democrafy) to mark the 40 years of Emergency organised by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation.
Noting that the possibility of Emergency will end when people, before voting, think whether the party’s internal democracy is alive or not, he said that it is time for people to change their mindset. Whenever they vote, they should think which party the individual belongs to.
“When you decide which party to vote for, find out if internal democracy in that party is alive or not. Those parties which are run on dynasty, those who might rule this country in the coming days, then the possibility of Emergency will not end,” he said.
He said, “Emergency neither comes through ordinances nor is forced by circumstances but Emergency comes through the dictatorial mindset.”
“Those who have finished off internal democracy in their party, members of one family...I am not talking of one party alone but many parties. In the jungle of 1650 parties in the country, there are only two or three parties in which internal democracy is still alive and one of them is BJP,” Shah said.
He said that only that party can struggle against the mentality of Emergency and dictatorship which has internal democracy in it.
He said since the country has accepted a multi-party democratic system, it is essential that only those parties should work whose internal democracy is still alive, where there is freedom of expressing one’s opinions and important decisions are taken by workers who come from the lower rungs of the party.
Shah said that in the 40 years after the Emergency, 32 years were spent under the leadership of one family.
He said that after Indira Gandhi became prime minister, a lot of changes started happening in the organisational structure of Congress and such a situation arose when the party was divided into two.
He said that a big chunk of Congress leaders went out of the party and the entire party came into the hands of Indira Gandhi.
“As an independent political analyst, I can say that those Congress leaders who left the party committed a big mistake of giving the entire party in the hands of Indira Gandhi.
“If they had struggled and fought by remaining in the party, then perhaps this country might not have faced the Emergency,” he said.
He noted that after getting elected in 1971, Indira Gandhi had “grabbed” the entire organisational structure of the party.
“After that, a tradition started that those who praised her got posts and those who opposed had to tolerate. A situation came that those who had merits were kept one side,” he said.
He noted that after independence, Subhash Chandra Bose’s family were spied on while Sardar Patel’s cremation was made into political issue while he was not given Bharat Ratna.
“This is one mentality. The other mentality is when BJP comes to power, it formed a committee for centenary celebrations of Jawaharlal Nehru and also decided to make the highest statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat,” he said.
It is time to decide between the two mentalities, he said.
He also assured that BJP will take politics in the direction shown by those who struggled against Emergency and fought to save democracy.
Noting that India has the strongest, biggest and changing democracy in the world, Shah said that since 1950 till today, in the history of democracy of the country, only two years (Emergency years) had come when in the entire country, democracy was nowhere to be seen.
Emergency was declared on June 25, 1975 and continued till March 21, 1977, and the period was characterised by a brutal suppression of civil liberties and arrest of key political leaders who opposed Indira Gandhi's actions.
Shah said that the root cause of Emergency’s is not to listen to others’ voices and taking away freedom of thoughts.
Shah said that the thought of Emergency was not to bring security and peace in the country or rule of the Constitution but to consolidate one’s own power.
Noting that 1.40 lakh people were put in jail for 19 months “inhumanly and undemocratically”, Shah said that despite that nobody gave up and continued their struggle.
