'Mann Ki Baat': Narendra Modi speaks about Emergency in first address after re-election, lauds 'resilience of democracy'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday resumed his radio programme, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ after gap of four months. Modi had signed off the last episode of his monthly radio programme in February ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and before the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for Lok Sabha elections came into force. On Sunday when Modi returned with his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ one of the first things he talked about was the “strength of India’s electoral system” and “resilience of democracy”. While highlighting the fact that the 2019 Lok Sabha Election was “the largest democratic election ever held in the world and in history by far” Modi said, “To successfully conduct General Election 2019, close to three lakh paramilitary personnel discharged their duty; 20 lakh police personnel too, persevered. It is on account of these people that voting took place on a larger scale compared to the previous election. To ensure that no voter was deprived of his or her voting rights, there were around 10 lakh polling stations, more than 40 lakh EVM machines, over 17 lakh VVPAT machines. You can imagine the gargantuan task.” [caption id=“attachment_6483641” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PTI[/caption] The prime minister also highlighted the fact that in the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, India saw over 61 crore voters exercising their franchise. “If I place it in a global perspective, if you exclude China, the number of people who voted in India exceeds the population of any other country in the world,” said Modi. Lauding this ‘democratic spectacle’ Modi said, “There is another fact pertaining to these Elections that swells our hearts with pride. Perhaps, this is the first time ever that women have enthusiastically voted, as much as men did. This time the ratio of men and women who voted was almost the same.” However, while referring to the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975, he asked people to understand the value of democracy. In his Lok Sabha speech delivered on 25 June, Modi had said, “A few people were constantly asking during the debate — Who did it? Who did it? I want to ask them — today is 25 June. Who imposed the Emergency? Who trampled over the spirit of the Constitution, gagged the media and bullied the judiciary? We can’t forget those dark days.” On Sunday too, he talked about emergency but it was directed towards people and not those who were responsible for it. It was an attempt to make people understand the “value of democracy”. Modi said, “When Emergency was imposed on the country, resistance was not limited to politicians; the movement was not curtailed to the confines of prison cells. There was an outrage in the conscience of one and all. The collective torment on the loss of democracy was evident." He added, “Laws and rules are necessary, rights and duties should be part of the due discourse. India can proudly proclaim that for us, beyond laws and rules, Democracy is embedded in our ‘sanskar’; democracy is our culture. Democracy is our heritage. We have been blessed with a democracy so invaluable, yet we take it for granted so easily. We must keep reminding ourselves that our democracy is glorious, it flows in our veins, through centuries of ‘sadhana’ and ‘sanskar’."