Kishan Reddy tells youth to learn lessons of Emergency at BJP mock parliament

LatestPoliticsTelangana
By HNH Web Desk
Emergency mock parliament

Hyderabad: Union Minister Kishan Reddy on Wednesday took part in a mock parliament event organised by the BJP Mahila Morcha at KMIT, marking 50 years since the Emergency imposed by the Congress.

Addressing participants, Reddy said India needed greater involvement of youth and women in politics. He cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to one lakh young people to enter public life, aiming to build a framework of moral and clean politics.

Reddy told participants they should aspire to argue in the real Parliament one day. He called the Indian Constitution among the best globally, contrasting it with countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, which he said faced turmoil due to constitutional breakdowns and military rule.

Referring to 1975, Reddy said then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi subverted the Constitution, curbed civil rights, and censored the press by declaring Emergency without even a cabinet discussion, forcing the President to sign the order at midnight. According to him, lakhs were arrested before sunrise, including Jayaprakash Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, V. Rama Rao, Venkaiah Naidu, and Bandaru Dattatreya. He said the purpose of the mock parliament was to educate today’s generation on what he termed anti-democratic excesses of the Emergency period.

Emergency mock parliament

He recalled the surge in corruption and joblessness under Indira Gandhi, which triggered Navnirman Samitis in Gujarat and Bihar, and pointed to student protests that faced police lathicharge. Reddy also cited Socialist leader Raj Narayan’s 1971 case in the Allahabad High Court accusing Indira Gandhi of poll malpractice, after which she postponed elections citing an internal crisis and extended the term by a year under Emergency.

He said youth groups, women’s organisations, journalists, and politicians in Hyderabad were arrested under the MISA Act during that period, with civil rights crushed. After the Emergency ended in 1977, the Janata Party led by Jayaprakash Narayan won elections and took power, defeating all Congress ministers in what Reddy described as a silent people’s revolution.

He stressed that later, the Janata government set up the Shah Commission to probe constitutional violations and abuses during the Emergency. He said these events cannot be erased from history and insisted the present generation must hold Indira Gandhi’s government accountable for its anti-democratic measures.

He concluded that safeguarding constitutional values, preserving democracy, and defending free speech would rest with today’s youth.

 

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