On the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of ‘Emergency‘ that shook the nation, Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu asserted that intolerant citizens violating the freedoms of fellow citizens have no right to be ‘Indians’ as it goes against the core values and ethos of India.
He spoke at length on the fallacious causes and the consequences of Emergency after releasing Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Gujarati versions of ‘Emergency: Indian Democracy’s Darkest Hour’ authored by Chairman of Prasar Bharti A. Surya Prakash.
Stating that no sensible Government would dare to resort to Emergency after the resounding pro-democracy verdict of the people in 1977, Shri Naidu said that now the threat to individual freedoms is from some misguided citizens.
He said “I am confident that no sensible government would repeat what was done during the fateful night of June 25, 1975. That was clearly a State sponsored ‘Intolerance’ to democracy and individual freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. But we need to guard against intolerance on the part of certain misguided citizens. We have been occasionally witnessing some such words and deeds of intolerance by some citizens in the name of so called cow protection, Love Jihad, eating habits, watching films, etc. Such incidents lead us to the point that individual freedoms can be in full play only when every citizen respects such freedoms of fellow citizens. Post emergency, the State apparatus would think twice before riding roughshod over the liberties and freedoms of citizens. But it is enlightened citizens who would enable fuller manifestation of such liberties and freedoms. ”
