Divine justice, Modi fought Indira’s dictatorial ideas, uprooted dynasty politics in 2014: Shah

Terming Emergency as “a black chapter” in the history of India, Shah said while it was necessary to move on from “bad experiences”, instances such as the Emergency needed to be remembered for eternity lest they occur again. He also spoke about the rationale behind the government’s decision to rename June 25 as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas (Death of Constitution Day)’, saying “such an era should only be described in such harsh words”.

Shah said Modi contributed to the anti-Emergency movement led by Socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s Nanaji Deshmukh.

“As a young volunteer who was part of the movement… visiting and looking after the families of those who had been arrested, making arrangements for their medical treatment, distributing secret newspapers which were being published underground in places like markets, intersections among women and students – he (Modi) led this struggle in Gujarat as a youth leader who was 24-25 years of age,” said Shah. He said Modi often used to work under disguise, “sometimes as a seer, sometimes as sardarji, sometimes as hippie, sometimes an incense stick seller, sometimes a newspaper vendor”.

“And see today, whenever divine justice is done, how it is done. The same 25-year-old youth who rose up against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s dictatorial ideas, visiting home after home, village after village and several cities, the same person… uprooted dynastic politics from the country in 2014,” said Shah.

Among the dignitaries present on the dais was veteran journalist and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts president Ram Bahadur Rai.

Shah appreciated Rai, saying he was J P Narayan’s close friend who witnessed the Emergency from close quarters. Rai, who was jailed for over a year during Emergency, is a former news editor of the Hindi daily Jansatta.

Conferred the Padma Shri in 2015, Rai was the first person to be arrested under the Maintenance of Security Act prior to Emergency, and during it as well, for being on a committee that led the J P movement.

An image of the blank editorial page of The Indian Express, published on June 28, 1975 following the imposition of the Emergency, was displayed from the dais. In his address, Shah mentioned The Indian Express and Jansatta for being frontrunners in protesting against the Emergency through blank editorials.