Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister J.P. Nadda on Thursday (June 25, 2025) said that Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the people of the country for his grandmother’s ‘anti-Constitution actions’. He said this in Patna while addressing the Samvidhan Hatya Diwas (Constitution Murder Day) programme organised by Bihar unit of the BJP, on the 51st anniversary of the ‘Emergency’ that was declared on June 25, 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Union Minister Giriraj Singh, and MP Radha Mohan Singh, alongside several Ministers, MPs, MLAs, and party office-bearers from both the Central and Bihar governments took part in the event, where a large number of J.P. Senani (people who took part in the J.P. movement in the 1970s) were felicitated.

‘The darkest chapter’

Mr. Nadda described the Emergency as the darkest chapter in the history of Indian democracy. He alleged that the Congress government had strangled democracy, the Constitution, the judiciary, press freedom, and citizens’ rights by imposing Emergency on the nation.

The Union Minister said, “Bihar is the birthplace of the historic struggle under the leadership of Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan to protect democracy.” The movement united the country against dictatorship, he added. “Even the British did not resort to as many brutal tactics against the public as Indira Gandhi did during the Emergency. Millions of people across the country, including in Bihar, endured the tortures of the dictatorial government”

He further said that democracy had been strangled through forced sterilisation drives. He claimed, “On the basis of data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, around 1.1 crore people were sterilised during the time – about 80 lakh people in 1975 and 1976 alone. The campaign had such a severe impact that young men in villages would flee whenever a doctor arrived for fear of forceful sterilisation. This figure was more than the population of Greece at that time.”

Digs at Rahul, INDI bloc

The Union Minister asserted that during the Emergency, they brought the 42nd Constitutional Amendment and extended the term of elected representatives from 5 years to 6 years. “While in power, they enacted a law stating that courts could not take action against them. Indira Gandhi’s grandchildren roam around carrying the Constitution book, yet they don’t even know a single provision of the Constitution. Before picking up the Constitution book, Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the people of the country for his grandmother’s anti-Constitution actions,” Mr. Nadda added.

He alleged that the activities of the INDI alliance are not aimed at strengthening the nation, but rather at standing with an anti-national agenda in their lust for power.

Recalling Narayan

He also spoke about the days when Narayan had become extremely weak due to illness and had come to Patna after being discharged from PGI, Chandigarh.

He recalled the time when he and Ravi Shankar Prasad were students at Patna College and Narayan was associated with Patna University. “Ramakant Pandey had invited Narayan to offer prayers at the Kali Temple in Darbhanga House, Patna.” After he had completed prayers, the students who had gathered there raised slogans – ‘Loknayak Jayaprakash, move forward, we are with you.’, Mr. Nadda said.

He added that while the Socialist leader was allowed to leave, the entire class was arrested within fifteen minutes of returning to classrooms and that such incidents were common during the Emergency. College campuses had turned into cantonments, he claimed. Mr. Nadda also mentioned the ban that was imposed on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in those years.