advertisement
Video Editor: Vivek Gupta
An all-out war of words broke out on Tuesday, 26 June between the BJP and the Congress on the 1975 Emergency.
Observing it as "black day", BJP leaders fanned out in the country to highlight the Emergency's excesses with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the charge with a ballistic speech in Mumbai and party chief Amit Shah addressing a meeting in Ahmedabad of those jailed during the 1975-77 Emergency.
The Congress hit back, equating Modi with Aurangzeb and alleged that he was even more cruel than the Mughal emperor and "enslaved democracy" in the country for the past 49 months with an undeclared Emergency.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Modi was launching an attack on the Congress only to hide his own failures and the "false" promises and "jumlas" he had made to the public before coming to power.
He alleged that an atmosphere of fear was being created in the country to suppress dissent with those opposing them dubbed as "anti-national" and that an "undeclared emergency" was imposed in the country under Modi.
Surjewala said, "Aurangzeb never took lessons from anybody... Dictators don't take lessons, only history teaches them lessons and I am sure Modiji will also have the same fate."
Unions ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Smriti Irani and M J Akbar, Ananth Kumar, J P Nadda and Dharmendra Pradhan were among the BJP leaders who targeted the Congress at events held across the country.
(With inputs from PTI)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)