Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday (June 24, 2025) that a country cannot develop if it is made to follow a single ideology or a single leader and leaves no scope for diverse opinions and ideas. He added that the foundations of democracy are so deep in India that if any dictator tries to shake it, he will do nothing but ruin his future.

Speaking at an event marking 50 years after the Emergency, Mr. Shah said that was the name of the “conspiracy” to convert a multi-party democracy into a “dictatorship by one person”, which was strongly opposed by many people at that time, even at the cost of personal loss. It was not a result of circumstances and compulsion but a product of dictatorial mentality and hunger for power, he said.

The Constitution has strengthened democracy and India is a land of people that has respected diversity for thousands of years, the Home Minister said at the event, organised by the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Trust. It is not only courts and Parliament that are responsible for protecting the spirit of the Constitution, he said, emphasising that the responsibility lies with the people too.

‘Terrible consequences’

“Democracy was born first in India. No dictator can dismantle democracy, which is at the core of this country,” Mr. Shah said, recalling that 1.11 lakh people were arrested during the Emergency period imposed by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975.

Also read: Congress should apologise for imposing Emergency in 1975, says former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu

Noting that the Emergency was only supported by a coterie who benefited from the move, Mr. Shah said: “It is the sycophants who, with their sycophancy, end the run of dictators.”

The Union government has decided to commemorate ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’ so that the country can remember the terrible consequences that ensue when a government becomes dictatorial, the Home Minister said.

‘Killed the Constitution’

Though the Emerency was imposed citing the security of the nation, its main purpose was to ensure the protection of power, he said. “A number of incidents and protests and movements against unemployment, price-rise had shaken the chairs and foundations of the government elected by a majority. There was neither any external nor any internal threat to the security of the country. They had just won the Bangladesh war,” Mr. Shah said.

Pointing to the current Opposition, Mr. Shah noted that parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Samajwadi Party who were affected by the Emergency are now sitting with the same Congress party which killed the Constitution.

“She (Indira Gandhi) made so many changes to the Constitution; even the Preamble was changed and the basic structure of the Constitution was changed. The judiciary was pliant. Agencies were misused,” he said.

The Constitution, which was drafted through discussions, sacrifices and penance, was rejected in a minute by the order of the “kitchen cabinet”, he said.

‘Longest night’

“The night of June 24, 1975 was the longest night in the history of independent India because its morning came after 21 months, and it was also the shortest night, because that night, the exercise of two years, 11 months, and 18 days was cancelled in a moment,” the Minister said.

No sensible citizen who lived during the Emergency would have liked it, Mr. Shah said. Those who were under the illusion that no one could challenge them were defeated in the elections held after the Emergency was lifted, and a non-Congress government was formed for the first time since Independence, he said.