Emergency a ‘mistake’ but no time limit for ‘undeclared emergency’ prevailing now: Singhvi

NEW DELHI: An “environment of fear, mistrust and division” prevails in India under the BJP govt, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on Monday while accusing the CBI of being an “uninvited guest”, entering houses and states without consent.

While admitting that the Emergency was a “mistake” that lasted for 18 months, he said there seemed no time limit for the “undeclared emergency” in the country today.

Participating in the debate on the Constitution in Rajya Sabha, Singhvi said, “That Emergency was a distortion, which the Constitution also supported. There were faults, but it ended. What is the time limit for this undeclared emergency which is there right now? What is the constitutional safeguard to end it, there is nothing, zero.”

He accused the govt of working against the tenets of secularism and federalism. “The Constitution is under siege and pillars of democracy tremble as tyranny tiptoes into our temples of power, the sanctity of secularism is being shredded and federalism is fractured,” he added.

On the trend of certain state govts bulldozing buildings, Singhvi said the Centre had glorified this so much that now CMs were competing with each other. He also attacked certain governors who, according to him, were working as super CMs and against the principle of cooperative federalism.

Accusing the govt of misusing CBI, he said, “CBI, this unwanted and uninvited guest that enters all our houses. It enters a state without any consent, no general or special consent, and on puerile and very strange grounds.”

He said all these are throttling federal structure while referring to the PM’s “phrase” of cooperative federalism.

Taking a dig at the bureaucracy and media for playing to the tunes of govt. “The test which is paramount is servility and loyalty. HMV is the qualifying condition, not the old records which we love, it means his master's voice. Any independence is met with retribution, fear and transfer, etc. From a watchdog you made it into a lapdog,” he said.

Earlier, JD(U) working president Sanjay Jha recalled the achievements of the JP movement and the atrocities of the Emergency. He also accused Congress of not taking necessary steps during the 1989 Bhagalpur riots which claimed 2,000 lives. “President’s rule was sought to be imposed in Bihar in 2005. Cabinet was convened at midnight and the orders were sent to the President who was in Moscow through fax,” Jha said.

Before Jha's address, Congress MP and former minister Mukul Wasnik targeted the govt on issues of women welfare and asked till now no woman has become head of the BJP. “In RSS, which will complete 125 years, has anybody seen a woman becoming its head?” he asked, adding that leaders like Annie Besant to Sarojini Naidu had risen to the post of Congress president.