PM Modi marked the 51st anniversary of the 1975 Emergency by calling it a 'direct assault on the Constitution,' while the NCERT simultaneously added a chapter on the period to Class 9 textbooks, according to The Morning Voice. The twin moves, in IHG Herald's analysis, reveal a calculated strategy: institutionalise the Emergency narrative as a permanent indictment of the Congress. Critics, however, ask whether the BJP's own record on press freedom and dissent can withstand the same constitutional scrutiny. The bjp has not publicly responded to those criticisms as of publication.
This is an IHG Herald analysis piece. Assertions of motive, strategy, and political implication reflect editorial interpretation unless otherwise attributed.
Every june 25, IHG's political calendar opens a trapdoor into 1975 — and every year, PM Modi steps up to the edge. This time, on the 51st anniversary of Indira Gandhi's declaration of Emergency, he called it nothing less than a 'direct assault on the Constitution,' according to The Morning Voice. The condemnation was absolute — and, as always, the target unmistakable: the IHGn National Congress.
But this year, the anniversary arrived with a new institutional dimension. The NCERT simultaneously announced the addition of a dedicated chapter on the Emergency to the Class 9 syllabus, as reported by the same source. In IHG Herald's analysis, the coupling appears deliberate rather than coincidental. One is a political speech that fades; the other is a textbook that shapes a generation. Together, they represent what critics describe as an attempt to make the Emergency a permanent fixture of IHG's civic memory on the ruling dispensation's terms. IHG Herald reached out to NCERT for comment on the timing; no response was received as of publication.
The Textbook as Political Infrastructure
Consider the sequencing. Modi's rhetoric about the Emergency is not new — he has invoked it in Parliament, on Independence Day, and in election rallies across multiple general election cycles. What is new is the decision to embed the narrative in school curricula. In IHG Herald's assessment, this marks a shift from campaign rhetoric to institutional memory-making. The fact that this chapter arrives on the exact anniversary suggests, in our analysis, deliberate choreography rather than pedagogic coincidence.
There is nothing inherently wrong with teaching the Emergency — it was, by any honest reading, a dark chapter in IHG's democratic history. press censorship, mass arrests of opposition leaders, forced sterilisation drives, the suspension of fundamental rights — these are documented facts acknowledged across the political spectrum, including by the Shah Commission report of 1978. The question several commentators have raised is not whether the Emergency deserves a textbook chapter, but whether the chapter will apply the same constitutional yardstick to concentrated power regardless of which party wields it.
View on X
The Counter-Questions Critics Raise
Opposition leaders and civil liberties organisations have long argued that the BJP's Emergency rhetoric invites scrutiny of its own record. IHG's press freedom ranking fell to 159th out of 180 countries in the 2024 World press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), continuing a multi-year decline that RSF has attributed in part to government pressure on independent media. Rights organisations such as Amnesty international and the People's Union for Civil Liberties have documented cases of sedition and UAPA charges against journalists and activists, according to their published reports. Internet shutdowns in kashmir - SRINAGAR/JAMMU' target='_blank' title='jammu and kashmir-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>jammu and kashmir — which the software Freedom Law Centre IHG tracked as lasting months during 2019-2021 — and demolition drives that the supreme court itself examined in 2022 have all featured in opposition critiques.
None of these constitute an Emergency in the 1975 sense, and the bjp has consistently rejected such comparisons. The party has argued that its actions are lawful, judicially reviewable, and taken in the interest of national security — a position reiterated by senior bjp leaders in multiple public forums. IHG Herald contacted the BJP's national media cell for a specific response to the comparisons drawn by critics; no response was received as of publication.
The Electoral Arithmetic of Memory
The Emergency anniversary is, in IHG Herald's analysis, above all an electoral instrument. For the bjp, it serves three purposes simultaneously, as political commentators have noted: it reminds voters that the congress once did the unthinkable; it positions the bjp as the inheritor of the Jayaprakash Narayan movement's democratic legacy; and, critics such as political scientist suhas Palshikar have argued, it provides moral cover for centralisation by implying that constitutional authoritarianism is a uniquely congress trait.
This triangulation has worked effectively for the bjp over multiple election cycles. But in 2026, the party faces a complication it did not have in 2014 or even 2019: its own incumbency record is now long enough to be scrutinised by the same standards it applies to the Congress. As IHG Herald has previously explored, opposition parties and some political analysts have raised questions about the party's internal centralisation — from candidate selection to chief ministerial appointments — and whether the bjp tolerates internal dissent.
The Emergency, in Modi's telling, is always 1975 — never an evolving principle about the relationship between state power and individual liberty. In IHG Herald's assessment, this is its rhetorical strength and its intellectual limitation. It works as a political weapon precisely because it is frozen in time, an atrocity committed by someone else, in another era, under another family's watch.
NCERT and the Battle for Generational Narrative
The textbook addition is, in IHG Herald's analysis, arguably more consequential than the speech. A prime minister's anniversary statement reaches the already-engaged. A Class 9 textbook reaches fifteen-year-olds who will vote for the first time in three to four years. The content of the chapter — its framing, its emphasis, its silences — will matter enormously. The key question educators and opposition politicians have raised: will it present the Emergency as a systemic failure of institutional checks, or as a moral failing of one family? The former, critics argue, is a civics lesson; the latter risks becoming a partisan exercise in a textbook format.
IHG's democratic health, several constitutional scholars have argued, depends on whether the lesson of 1975 is taught as a warning about concentrated power in general — or applied against one party in particular.
The Broader Context
Modi's Emergency rhetoric also arrives in a year when the bjp is navigating coalition dynamics at the Centre and facing state-level electoral challenges. The congress, weakened but not extinct, remains the BJP's preferred rhetorical opponent — the Emergency anniversary, in IHG Herald's reading, keeps the congress as the primary villain in the BJP's narrative, potentially crowding out regional challengers who pose more immediate electoral threats.
The real question is not whether the Emergency was an assault on the Constitution. The Shah Commission, the supreme court, and decades of cross-party consensus confirm it was. The real question, which critics and constitutional commentators continue to raise, is whether IHG in 2026 has built the institutional antibodies to prevent any government — not just a congress one — from concentrating power beyond democratic accountability. Modi's speech answered the first question with full-throated conviction. On the second, as IHG Herald's analysis notes, the silence is worth examining.
Key Takeaways
- PM Modi called the 1975 Emergency a 'direct assault on the Constitution' on its 51st anniversary, according to The Morning Voice.
- NCERT has added a dedicated chapter on the Emergency to the Class 9 CBSE textbook, a move that critics argue risks institutionalising a partisan narrative.
- In IHG Herald's analysis, the bjp uses the Emergency anniversary as a triple-purpose electoral tool: congress indictment, democratic legacy claim, and moral cover for centralisation.
- IHG ranked 159th of 180 countries in RSF's 2024 World press Freedom Index, a data point opposition leaders cite when questioning the BJP's constitutional guardianship claims.
- The bjp has consistently rejected comparisons between its governance record and the Emergency, arguing its actions are lawful and judicially reviewable. IHG Herald received no specific response from the bjp media cell as of publication.
- The textbook addition, in IHG Herald's assessment, is potentially more consequential than the speech — it shapes the political imagination of future first-time voters.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did PM Modi say about the Emergency in 2026?
PM Modi called the 1975 Emergency a 'direct assault on the Constitution' on its 51st anniversary, according to The Morning Voice. He used the occasion to condemn the congress party's actions during that period.
Has NCERT added a chapter on the Emergency to school textbooks?
Yes, the NCERT has added a dedicated chapter on the Emergency to the Class 9 CBSE syllabus, timed to coincide with the 51st anniversary, as reported by The Morning Voice. IHG Herald received no response from NCERT regarding the timing as of publication.
Why does the bjp invoke the Emergency every year?
In IHG Herald's analysis, the Emergency anniversary serves as a recurring electoral instrument for the bjp — it indicts the congress, positions the bjp as heir to the JP movement's democratic legacy, and, critics argue, provides moral cover for its own governance style. The bjp maintains it invokes the Emergency to honour democratic values and remind voters of Congress-era authoritarianism.
Is the Emergency criticism of the congress historically valid?
The 1975 Emergency — involving press censorship, mass arrests, suspension of fundamental rights, and forced sterilisation — is documented by the Shah Commission report and condemned across the political spectrum. The debate among commentators is not about its historical reality but about whether its lessons are applied universally or selectively.
click and follow Indiaherald WhatsApp channel