Chandigarh, Jun 27: “The Emergency of 1975 was not a response to any national threat—it was a panicked move by a power-hungry then Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to subvert the Constitution and retain her position after being disqualified by the court,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary, Tarun Chugh said.
Addressing a district seminar in Ludhiana commemorating 50 years since the imposition of Emergency, Chugh said Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal is replicating it in Punjab in a “brutal manner by suppressing the opposition voices”.
He said, “Indira Gandhi grossly misused Article 352 and turned India’s vibrant democracy into a personal dictatorship overnight. The Constitution, under which she took oath, was trampled. The judiciary, executive and press were all held hostage. Press freedom was buried, with censorship, jailings, and power cuts to news outlets.”
Chugh exposed how Sanjay Gandhi, without any constitutional authority, ran the country, while opposition leaders like JP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Rajnath Singh were jailed without trial. “Even Justice H.R. Khanna was punished for upholding judicial independence,” he said, adding, “The Congress used MISA to imprison over 1 lakh people and even denied jailed leaders the last rites of their loved ones.”
The BJP leader said that today’s Congress has not changed. “Even now, they stifle dissent, file cases against journalists, boycott the media, and label criticism as ‘anti-national’. Their so-called ‘digital Emergency’ has replaced the old tactics,” he said.“Congress destroyed institutions, promoted dynastic rule, and tampered with the Constitution by inserting ideological terms like ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’—all to serve a single family. Today too, meetings of opposition alliances are held at the Congress President’s residence, exposing their obsession with one dynasty.”
Drawing a parallel with the AAP government in Punjab, Chugh said, “Bhagwant Mann’s government is not run from Chandigarh but from Kejriwal’s residence, not by Mann but by Kejriwal’s coterie. The arrest of Bikram Majithia reeks of political vendetta. This is Kejriwal’s danda tantra—no different from Indira Gandhi’s tyranny.”
The BJP leader said AAP and Congress are two sides of the same coin. “Team A and Team B of deceit. Both have looted Punjab and crushed democratic values,” he said, adding, “Punjab will soon rise again and reject both parties, as the people are tired of their hypocrisy, betrayal and misrule.”
