Arun Jaitley to congratulate activists jailed during Emergency
The function to be organised by the state unit of BJP at the party office will also be attended by Member of Parliament Prabhat Jha and North Delhi Mayor Yogender Chandolia, BJP said in a statement.
Terming the Emergency as the worst post-Independence chapter of the Indian democracy, Jaitley said it gave him the best political education of his life as it taught him that some compromises are “just not possible”.
The senior BJP leader, who was President of Delhi University Students Union when the Emergency was imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, was detained for 19 months. He said it displayed the weakness of the Indian constitutional order where the press could be silenced and judiciary “made pliable”.
“For many like me who underwent Emergency experience in Delhi and successfully fought against it, this became a turning point in our lives. The Emergency was perhaps the best political education of my life. It taught me that some compromises were just not possible,” he said, in an article on the 39th anniversary of the 1975-77 Emergency which falls on Thursday.
