51 Years of Emergency: Modi Calls It a 'Direct Assault' on Constitution, NCERT Adds Chapter to Class 9 Textbook

Fifty-one years after the imposition of the Emergency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described the period as a direct assault on the Constitution, as the nation observed June 25 as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' (Constitution Murder Day) amid renewed political sparring over its legacy.

Modi said the Emergency, declared on June 25, 1975 , witnessed the suspension of civil liberties, curbs on freedom of expression, arrests of political leaders, journalists and social workers, and an assault on institutions that are the bedrock of Indian democracy. In an earlier message marking the 50th anniversary, the PM had specifically cited the 42nd Constitutional Amendment as proof of how Parliament's voice was muzzled and the courts were sought to be controlled. In a separate Hindi post this year, he said the day reminds citizens of a period when Indian democracy was brutally crushed, and shared a Sanskrit verse on the value of freedom. India was placed under Emergency under Article 352 between June 25, 1975 and March 21, 1977 , following the Allahabad High Court's June 12, 1975 verdict that found Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractice, the immediate trigger that preceded the proclamation amid mounting protests led by Jayaprakash Narayan .

Vice President C P Radhakrishnan said the Emergency stands as a solemn reminder of a time when constitutional values were severely tested, with civil liberties suspended and institutions undermined. Home Minister Amit Shah was sharper in tone, accusing Indira Gandhi and the Congress Party of acting out of arrogance and a hunger for power that sought to crush the Constitution's spirit, press freedom and the right to free expression. BJP president J P Nadda and chief ministers including Yogi Adityanath , Rekha Gupta and Pushkar Singh Dhami echoed similar remarks, while MP Ravi Shankar Prasad argued that the Emergency had been imposed mainly to protect Indira Gandhi's hold on power. BJP leaders have previously cited Shah Commission findings noting mass detentions, figures of around 1.1 lakh people jailed without trial, alongside the forced sterilisation drive spearheaded by Sanjay Gandhi , which remains one of the period's most controversial legacies, along with sweeping press censorship.

Congress has in past years rejected the government's framing of the day as a "headline-grabbing exercise in hypocrisy," with leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh accusing the BJP of selectively invoking history while glossing over present-day concerns about institutional independence and dissent. Shashi Tharoor had separately argued that the 1975 proclamation, while politically undemocratic, followed the procedure laid out in the Constitution itself. No fresh statement from Congress or INDIA bloc leaders had been recorded as of Thursday evening in response to this year's observance, though the party's position from previous anniversaries continues to inform the ongoing political debate.

Adding to the day's developments, the NCERT has for the first time introduced a section on the Emergency in the Class 9 social science textbook, having previously covered it only from Class 12 onward. The chapter describes the period as one of the major challenges to Indian democracy. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan welcomed the move, while BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla referenced the curriculum's chequered history, content on the Emergency was pruned in 2023 during a rationalisation exercise, after then-HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had in 2018 promised that the "whole story" of the period would eventually be restored to textbooks so students could understand the "reality of that time."

More than five decades on, the Emergency remains one of the most politically contested chapters of independent India's history, invoked each year not merely as remembrance, but as an active battleground between the ruling BJP and the Congress over its meaning, legacy and lessons for the country's democratic present.