India, June 25 -- On June 25th, India observes the Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas - "Constitution Murder Day" - to remind us of the horrors of the 1975 Emergency. On that fateful night 50 years ago, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Congress swept aside India's vibrant democracy in a dictatorial power grab. As Home Minister Amit Shah notes, Indira Gandhi "strangled the soul of Indian democracy by imposing an emergency" and had "lakhs of people. jailed without any reason and the voice of the media was suppressed".

Civil liberties were crushed, opposition leaders like JP Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani were jailed; the press was gagged; forced sterilisations and slum demolitions terrorised the poor.

For the BJP, this day is more than a...