By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan felicitated 25 persons who were detained in jails under MISA and D.I.R. during emergency at a function held at his residence here today. He presented them shawls, coconut, bouquets and sanction letters for the honorarium.
Speaking on the occasion the Chief Minister Chouhan called them true sentinels of democracy saying that the state government feels proud in felicitating them.
Prominent among those present at the function included former Chief Ministers Sunderlal Patwa and Kailash Joshi; Minister of State for G.A.D. Mrs. Ranjana Baghel; State BJP President Narendra Singh Tomar and Organization General Secretary Makhan Singh.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan felicitating MISA detainees
The Chief Minister said that on this day 33 years ago emergency was imposed in the country. This is a chapter in the history of Indian democracy and independent India that no one would like to read.
Chouhan said that those who opposed the emergency that had robbed the citizens of their constitutional rights and violated the constitutional processes are fighters of the second freedom. The Chief Minister recalled the untold miseries and sufferings to which the MISA and D.I.R. detainees were subjected during the emergency.
He said that the freedom fighters who fought the British to free the country from their subjugation know the period of their detention and punishment. But those detained during the emergency were now aware as to how long they would languish in the jail and where to appeal.
The Chief Minister said that they should not be called MISA detainees but true sentinels of democracy. He said that opposition of the emergency strengthened democracy in India. He hoped that their struggle would inspire the future generation to rise to the occasion in case democracy is threatened in future. He said that a nodal officer would be appointed in districts to finalize the list of the persons who were detained under MISA during the emergency. The social workers who were sent to jail in false cases would be included in the list, but the people of criminal tendency would not excluded.
Earlier, the Chief Minister felicitated Kailash Joshi, Sunderlal Patwa, Kailash Sarang, Mrs. Savita Vajpaiyee, wife of late Hashmatulla Warsi Mrs. Parveen Warsi, the wife of late Riyaz Ali Kaka Mrs. Hazarabi, Ramji Kotwani, Giriraj Kishore, Gaurishankar Kaushal’s son Dharmendra Kaushal as Kaushal is indisposed, Komal Chandra Bhandwari, Vishwanath Vyas, Pooranlal Rai, Fida Hussain, Shrivallabh Sharma, Kasturchand Jain, Ramgopal Sharma, Gangaram Rai, Ramchandra Maya, Maganlal Goil, Keshav Pandey, Purushottam Sanghi, Omprakash Sharma, Khuman Singh Shivaji, Laxaminarayan Nayak and Madhukar Rao Chitale.
At the outset Sunderlal Patwa and Kailash Joshi also spoke on the occasion and recalled the hard days of the emergency. They hoped that the country and the people would never see such days again.
The president of MISA Bandi Sangathan Kailash Soni dwelt at length on the contribution of MISA detainees in protecting democracy. He praised the state government for felicitating the sentinels of democracy saying that Madhya Pradesh is the first state to do so.
Earlier, a portrait of Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan was garlanded. ([email protected])