Badal calls for re-awakening the anti-Emergency spirit

Chandigarh, June 25 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minster Parkash Singh Badal today called for '' constant vigilance against some subterranean dictatorial tendencies in our polity'' to prevent the recurrence of the traumatic experience of the days of the Emergency in 1975.

Making a suo mottu statement on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the imposition of internal Emergency by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Mr Badal urged ''those levelling baseless charges of vendetta and violation of democratic and human rights in Punjab'' to do some serious soul searching on the issue and oppose any relapse into draconian tendencies within their own parties.

''There is a need also to re-awaken the spirit with which the country had fought against the most serious challenge to its democracy from the then Congress government. Many of those now talking about rule of law and human rights in Punjab were in fact a party to the decision to rob the country of these very rights and values,'' he said.

The Chief Minister reiterated the commitment of his party and the SAD-BJP government in Punjab to safeguard the democratic rights and human liberties of each and every citizen in the state and said that under no circumstances would the government deviate from the rule of law.

In a significant reference to what he described as '' a brazen assault on democratic values in the country in the form of Emergency'', Mr Badal said the People of Punjab had to bear the brunt of this assault. He quoted from an editorial comment on the repression let loose against the SAD and other opposition parties by the then Congress government at the Centre.

He claimed that the entire country hailed the role played by the SAD during the Emergency recalling how the party waged a long and almost lonely battle against the draconian measures during that period.

He recalled the Akali Dal 'Morcha' from the precincts of the Harmandar Sahib in Amritsar during the Emergency. This 'Morcha' would always remain a distinctive milestone in the march of democracy and human rights in the country.

UNI