Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh on Thursday, 25 June 2026 invoked the 51st anniversary of the 1975 Emergency to demand a public apology from the Indian National Congress, accusing the party of strangling democracy and the Constitution by imposing the 21-month Emergency and now invoking constitutional values for political benefit.

Context

Posting on X under the hashtags #Emergency, #SamvidhanHatyaDiwas, and #Democracy, the minister wrote: 'Jis Congress ne aapatkaal thopkar loktantra aur samvidhan ka gala ghonta, woh aaj samvidhan ki duhai de rahi hai' — 'The Congress that throttled democracy and the Constitution by imposing the Emergency is today invoking the Constitution.' He added that 25 June 1975 is a 'dark chapter' the nation must never forget, and that educating the younger generation about this history is essential to protecting democracy.

The post is one of several BJP voices marking the anniversary, which the party has labelled Samvidhan Hatya Diwas — 'Constitution Murder Day' — to underscore its charge that the Congress-led government of the era committed a fundamental assault on constitutional order.

Policy Backdrop

On 25 June 1975, then-President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, acting on the advice of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, proclaimed a national Emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution, citing 'internal disturbance'. The proclamation suspended fundamental rights and curtailed civil liberties for 21 months, until March 1977.

Since 2014, the BJP has systematically used annual commemorations of the Emergency to frame itself as the defender of constitutional democracy and to characterise the Congress as an authoritarian force. The Samvidhan Hatya Diwas framing intensifies that narrative by directly linking the Emergency to what the party describes as an attack on the Constitution itself.

Stakeholders and Impact

The demand for an apology is directed squarely at the Indian National Congress, the party that held power when the Emergency was declared. Congress has historically defended the Emergency as a necessary response to political instability, while opposition parties and civil-society groups have long condemned it as an abuse of executive power.

For younger voters who did not live through 1975–77, the BJP's annual messaging campaign serves as a political education exercise, seeking to cement a historical association between the Congress and democratic backsliding. The Samvidhan Hatya Diwas hashtag mobilises party cadres and allied voices across social media on the anniversary each year.

What's Next

Opposition responses are expected when the 2026 monsoon session of Parliament convenes, where the Emergency anniversary and its framing as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas may surface in floor debates. Any formal government notification designating 25 June as an official day of remembrance would escalate the political stakes considerably, turning a social-media campaign into a state-sanctioned historical verdict.

As the BJP's institutional memory of the Emergency deepens through annual campaigns, the Congress faces continued pressure to either mount a counter-narrative or address the demand for accountability head-on — a choice that will shape how the 1975 episode is remembered by a generation that has no direct experience of it.