The Vice President of India was no less aggressive while speaking on Saturday at the Platinum Jubilee of Rajasthan High Court; he recalled the pre-21 emergency days of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Dhankhar, who is from Rajasthan, welcomed the high court into the ‘precious list’ of courts that had delivered judgments that were in favor of the affected people during the Emergency. But he decried that the Supreme Court had at last set aside these decisions, expressing that “no one can approach any court for the realization of his rights while Emergency is in force” and the Emergency can remain “as long as the government desires. “
Thus, the Vice President was not shy about directly condemning the activities of the Congress government during that stormy period. During the Emergency period, liberty became a subject or a bargaining tool given by one person, Indira Gandhi, who ordered the annulment of civil rights and the detention of opponents.
Dhankhar’s comments come in the backdrop of the government’s announcement that June 25 will be observed every year as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’ (Constitution Murder Day) to mark the Emergency.
The vice president’s statement will only aggravate the conflict between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party, and the Indian National Democratic Alliance (INDIA), the opposition party that accused Dhankhar of bias in favor of the ruling party. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the INDIA alliance said that if the BJP returns to power, it will scarp the Constitution, an assertion that the government has refused to accept.
Having been an ex-officio chair of the Rajya Sabha, Dhankhar has been in the eye of the storm more often, with the opposition partially accusing him of failing to hold his horses in his constitutional authority. But recently the Vice President has disturbingly returned to the same subject and indicated that he is not scared to open the avoidant wounds in India’s history even though this offends some people there.
