Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi (Express photo by Partha Paul/Files)
Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Tuesday described the Emergency as the “darkest days” in post-Independence India, close on the heels on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley drawing a parallel between Adolf Hitler’s rule in Germany and the imposition of Emergency by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.
The Governor in a statement said, “The Emergency days were the darkest days in the post-independent India. How one can stoop so low to fulfil the lust for power was shamelessly demonstrated in those days in the activities of the then ruling party at the Centre. There was a reign of terror throughout the country. Illustrations of brutalities in different forms inflicted on innocent citizens are too many to count.”
Tripathi, in his statement titled ‘Emergency- The Dark Hour’, also said persons connected with the “RSS, Jan Sangh, Socialist party and other anti-Congress parties were implicated on false charges and sent to jail under MISA/DIR (Defence of India Rules).”
“It was just not an Emergency. It was a calamity brought down on the people of India by none other than those who claimed to be champions of Democracy. Patriots suffered during Emergency. The entire country was practically turned into a jail. The Emergency saw thousands of innocent persons detained in jails for 19 months,” read the statement.
The Governor further wrote, “There is always a limit even to atrocities but this limit was crossed everyday during the Emergency…”