New Delhi: Emergency was imposed in the country on this day, 25 June 1975. The movement led by students against the Congress was spreading across the country and Gujarat was no exception. During the Navnirman movement in Gujarat in 1974, PM Narendra Modi witnessed firsthand the power of the students’ voice in bringing about change in the country. Narendra Modi was an RSS pracharak at that time. As a youth pracharak of the RSS, he gave such a speech that the enthusiasm of the youth movement increased further.
Narendra Modi read a poem
Narendra Modi described the emergency as an opportunity in disaster and asked people to take the government’s failures to the people. Narendra Modi also recited a poem during his speech.
PM Modi gave this speech
When duty called, I moved forward step by step
When the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ echoed
Then leaving behind the attachment to life, the soul offered flowers
step by step increased
When groups of gangs of youth started moving
Then the door frames creaked and the thrones shook
The watchmen of democracy break all discrimination
Leaving all attachments behind, we met at our destination
Everybody read out each line of the challenge together.
step by step increased
The whole country shouted Jaiprakash Zindabad
then the dictator got shocked
eyebrows furrowed
Sticks rained down on chests and foreheads
[नरेंद्र मोदी की निजी डायरी के पन्नों में नवनिर्माण आंदोलन के बारे में एक कविता के अंश]
Modi also participated in the protest
When the Emergency was imposed, Narendra Modi joined the protests against it. Modi and other volunteers organised meetings and took responsibility for disseminating literature underground. At that time, he worked closely with senior RSS leaders like Nath Jagda and Vasant Gajendragadkar. Dissemination of information was a challenge due to tight security. However, Narendra Modi came up with a unique solution. He loaded material related to the Constitution, laws and the excesses of the Congress government on trains departing from Gujarat to other states. This helped in spreading the message to remote places with less risk of identification.
Articles about the emergency were published in magazines
The Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti was founded after the RSS was forced to go underground. At the age of 25, he quickly rose to the position of its general secretary within three years. Through his articles and correspondence, Modi played a key role in sustaining the rebellion against the Congress government, even during the most challenging period when key movement leaders were unjustly arrested under the MISA Act. One correspondence discussed collecting paper cuttings of Narendra Modi’s articles from publications such as the Gujarat Newsletter and Sadhna Patrika, as well as other underground literature and prints, with the intention of broadcasting them on platforms such as the BBC.
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