'No one would dare to impose emergency in India'

Jamshedpur, Jun 25 : With the passage of time, the democracy has become stronger in India and no one would dare now to impose emergency, according to Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari.

Speaking at a seminiar on ''Patrakarita Ki Azadi'' (Freedom of the Press) to mark on the 30th anniversary of emergency, organized by the Press Club of Jamshedpur here today, Mr Namdhari while recalling the ''Black days'' of Indian politics said the emergency was declared due to ''over-sycophancy'' of some senior Congress leaders, who even raised the slogans like ''Indira is India and India is Indira''.

He also singled out the role of media and the public representatives during the period of emergency and said if they were active, emergency would not have been declared. But now democracy was consolidated and if the media and public representatives remained alert, the possibility of repetition of the incident of June 25,1975 would not take place, Mr Namdhari opined.

He also mentioned the role of the judiciary at that time and said uncertainty was prevailing and the judiciary was overactive as it had not spared the big shots like Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani.

Talking about the role of media in today's competitive era, Mr Namdhari said the media should play a role of watchdog and also stressed the need for its self introspection. He cautioned about delegation of absolute power to any individual or organization, which could be fatal for democracy. However, he was optimistic about the future of democracy in India and said ''I foresee a bright future of democracy in India.'' Later talking to reporters, Mr Namdhari said the role of media should be positive. ''Instead of highlighting the stories of Mikas and Rahul Mahajans, the media should focus on the stories related to public interests'', he said.

UNI