India, June 25 -- Emergency is grim reminder that democracy must be safeguarded at all costs
The democracy is a powerful yet fragile political system. It has to be nurtured, its institutions must be strengthened before it becomes truly effective. India had a short brush with autocracy on June 25, 1975, a date etched in the memory of India as the moment when Emergency was imposed by the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed at the behest of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Fifty years later, the shadow of that night still looms large over the nation's democratic conscience. It was on this day that the Prime Minister imposed a nationwide Emergency, suspending civil liberties, jailing political opponents, and censoring the press. What unf...