Emergency was India's darkest period: PM Modi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked the 40th anniversary of Emergency by recalling the suspension of democracy by the Indira Gandhi regime and the repression unleashed on her political opponents. Modi, who chose the day to launch three ambitious schemes, started with a tweet describing the Emergency's 19 months as "one of India's darkest periods when political leadership tramped over our democracy". Later, addressing a public function, he said people were shackled and the country was turned into a huge prison for the sake of someone's lust of power. "Nobody can forget June 25-26 in the history of India... Lakhs of patriots nursing the dream of Sampoorna Kranti under the leadership of Jai Prakash Narayan were jailed. Newspaper offices were locked and the radio aired only what the government wanted," he said.   TOI