President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday said that the Emergency imposed in 1975 was a blot on India's Constitution.
Addressing the joint sitting of Parliament, she said, "The Emergency in 1975 was the biggest attack on the Constitution of India and a blot on it."
President Murmu said, "The Constitution of India has stood up to every challenge and every test in the past. Even when the Constitution was in the making, there were forces in the world who wished India to fail. Even after the Constitution came into force, it was attacked many times."
The imposition of Emergency on June 25, 1975 was the biggest and darkest chapter of a direct attack on the Indian Constitution, she said.
President Murmu said the entire country felt outraged, but the nation emerged victorious over such unconstitutional forces as the traditions of the Republic lie at the core of India.
"My Government also does not consider the Constitution of India as just a medium of governance; rather we are making efforts to ensure that our Constitution becomes a part of public consciousness," the President said.
"With this objective in mind, my Government has started celebrating November 26 as Constitution Day," she said.
Her remarks come close on the heels of the heated exchange between the ruling BJP and the Opposition.
INDIA bloc parties have repeatedly said that over the last 10 years of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government being in power, an "undeclared Emergency" is in force, while the Union ministers have highlighted the horrors of the Emergency imposed in 1975 by then Indira Gandhi government.
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