Delhi CM Rekha Gupta: “Emergency Turned India into an Open Jail; We Must Remember the Day Democracy Was Murdered”

By A Staff Reporter

New Delhi: Speaking at a solemn event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta strongly condemned the authoritarian measures taken during the 21-month period from 1975 to 1977, calling it a time when the Constitution was "murdered" and the entire country transformed into an "open jail."

“A question may arise in our minds—it has been 50 years since the Emergency, which is actually Samvidhan Hatya Diwas—so why do we remember this day every year?” Gupta said. “It is important to remember it so that those who walk around with the Constitution in their pockets and speak of protecting it also remember that democracy was murdered when the Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975.”

She highlighted how the Emergency curtailed basic freedoms, targeted political opponents, and muzzled the press. “The free will of the people was snatched, and the fourth pillar of democracy—the media—was silenced,” she said, calling the period one of the darkest in independent India's history.