Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh launched a scathing attack on the central government, accusing it of politicising the Emergency through a year-long nationwide awareness campaign.

Speaking to reporters in Madhya Pradesh, Singh claimed this was the first time the Centre had tried to turn an otherwise historical subject into a political weapon.

“This is for the first time that the central government has politicised an unpolitical issue, and has ordered a campaign to be run for one full year throughout the country… This is a 50-year-old issue,” he said.

Singh went on to draw a parallel with what he described as a “silent, unannounced emergency” over the last eleven years, criticising the current dispensation for what he claimed were systematic violations of civil liberties.

“What about the unannounced emergency that has been going on for the last 11 years? People have been arrested and they are not being given bail without a chargesheet,” he alleged.

He further accused the ruling BJP of selective outrage, recalling how leaders of the RSS had themselves supported the Emergency imposed in 1975.

“The then Chief of RSS supported the imposition of Emergency,” Singh claimed.

The Congress leader’s remarks come as the Centre prepares to mark 50 years since the imposition of the Emergency, with events and outreach programs scheduled across the country.