Congress leaders on Thursday, 25 June rallied behind party general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who had alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is pursuing a two-thirds parliamentary majority specifically to end reservations and amend the Constitution. The BJP swiftly counter-attacked, invoking the 1975 Emergency and asserting that the Congress has no moral standing to lecture on constitutional values.

Congress Leaders Back Ramesh's Allegation

Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Rai said Ramesh's charge was 'absolutely correct,' alleging that the BJP's reported practice of poaching elected legislators demonstrated an intent to weaken the Constitution. 'The way BJP is buying MLAs, this shows that they want to change the Constitution and weaken its strength,' Rai alleged.

Congress MP Rakesh Rathore went further, claiming the BJP does not want marginalised communities to enter the mainstream. 'They don't want that the oppressed section in the country gets to be a part of the mainstream. That is why the BJP wants to amend the Constitution and also that is why MPs are being bought in crores,' Rathore said. He added that the BJP's reported push for a two-thirds majority in Parliament was aimed at drafting a Constitution 'of their own.'

BJP Fires Back, Cites Emergency as Congress's Constitutional Record

BJP leader Gourav Vallabh launched a sharp rebuttal, demanding that Ramesh and the entire Congress leadership 'collectively stand and apologise to the entire country' for the Emergency imposed in 1975 under the then Indira Gandhi-led government. 'The fundamental rights of the people were abolished by the Congress during that period,' Vallabh said.

Vallabh further alleged that the Congress government of that era had 'completely destroyed Constitutional establishments' and reduced governance to a one-person regime. 'Indira Gandhi had made herself the centre of the regime. Even today, people who lived through that period are horrified thinking about the events that took place at that time,' he said.

The BJP leader also stressed the need to remind younger generations — including millennials, Generation Z, and Generation Alpha — that the Congress had, in his words, 'hatched a conspiracy to destroy the Constitution in 1975,' adding that 'it was the people of the country who defeated that conspiracy.'

PM Modi Calls Emergency India's 'Darkest Chapter'

The exchange came on the same day that Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly condemned the Emergency's imposition as a 'grave sin' and the 'darkest chapter in the history of Indian democracy.' Modi urged citizens to 'never forgive nor forget' those responsible — remarks widely read as a direct broadside at the Congress ahead of ongoing political competition.

Context and What This Signals

The row centres on a recurring fault line in Indian politics: who controls the constitutional narrative. Ramesh's original remark tapped into long-standing anxieties among Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class communities about the safety of reservation provisions. The BJP's counter — centred on the Emergency anniversary — reflects its established strategy of anchoring the Congress's credibility to 26 June 1975, the date Emergency was declared. This is not the first time both charges have been traded; the pattern intensifies predictably around the Emergency anniversary each year. How the two parties frame constitutional intent will likely shape messaging through the next electoral cycle.