Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal
Chandigarh June 25, 2016: The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash SIngh Badal said here today that the constant vigil and people's active involvement with political processes in the country were the basic prerequisites for the continued reservation of democracy in our country.
Badal said that there were lessons to be drawn from that horrible experience. "The greatest lesson is that no matter how strong the roots of our democracy run, people must not take this blessing for granted. Democracy must be nourished and protected with our own sweat and toil and selfless commitment to ideals at all times."
"The second and the most important lesson," said Mr Badal ," is that anrachist fascism ( tod fod te adharit siasi junoon) is a phenomenon which looks glamorous at first sight is the most serious threat to parliamentary democracy. There are forces active even today trying to whip up mob frenzy in the name of systemic changes. These are thinly veiled threats to our parliamentary democracy and these must be fought at all costs. The want to blow up this system without offering any sane and long lasting alternative, except glorification of a few
so-called crusaders" , In a statement on the anniversary of the Internal Emergency imposed on the country by the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi in the mid seventies, Badal said that the country would always recall with a horror the terrifying experiment with draconian dictatorship. "And it required a massive exercise popular will, spearheaded by the Shiromani Akali Dal in the form of the anti-Emergency Morcha from the holy precincts of Shri Harmandar Sahib to rid the country of that demon. That was the most trying moment as well as one of the most glorious hours in the history of the party in the post Independence India."
Badal said that the entire country had been shell shocked by the midnight announcement of the Emergency and the country's most respected leaders including Jaya Parkash Narayan, Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Nardndra Modi and George Fernandez were hunted down by a blood thirsty police and para military force. "A complete fear psychosis gripped the country and it was left to the SAD and its leaders like Sant Harchand SIngh ji Logowal, Jathedar
Gurcharan SIngh Tohra and others to seek inspiration for the divine legacy of the great gurus and start a Morcha against the mighty Congress government at that time. The Morcha which lasted full nineteen months tenure of the Emergency was called off only after it had succeeded in forcing the then government to revoke the dreaded experiment and restore democracy."
Badal said that he would always remain grateful to the people of Punjab who have always responded whole hearted to the call for struggle for defending the rights of the citizens. In Punjab, we have always drawn strength from the popular synergy of people's power and the commitment of leadership to the overall vision of a society based on the ideals of peace, communal harmony and development."