Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the imposition of the Emergency "took away right to life and personal liberty" and recalled what he described as the massive popular movement against it to defeat the "dictatorial mindset" and "re-establish democracy".
Addressing his monthly radio talk 'Man ki Baat, Modi also touched on rapid growth in space start-ups and increasing achievements in the field of sports."It was the month of June when an emergency was imposed. In that, all the rights were taken away from the citizens of the country,” he said "One amongst those rights was the 'Right to Life and Personal Liberty' provided to all Indians under Article 21 of the Constitution.
At that time an attempt was made to crush the democracy of India", said the Prime Minister. He said as people fought back, the country's courts, every Constitutional institution and the press were put under control.
"The condition of censorship was such that nothing could be printed without approval. I remember when famous singer Kishore Kumar refused to applaud the Government, he was banned. His entry on the radio was done away with.
"But even after many attempts, thousands of arrests, and atrocities on lakhs of people, the faith of the people of India in democracy did not shake… not at all! For us, the people of India, the sanskars of democracy which we have been carrying on for centuries; the democratic spirit which is in our veins, finally won", he said.
The people of India got rid of the emergency and "re-established democracy in a democratic way", Modi said. "It is difficult to find such an example of defeating a dictatorial mindset, a dictatorial tendency in a democratic way, in the whole world", said the Prime Minister.
Turning to progress in the space sector, Modi said many big feats related to the space sector have been accomplished in our country.
One of these achievements of the country, he said, has been the "creation of an agency named In-Space… an agency that is promoting new opportunities in the space sector for the private sector of India."
This beginning has especially attracted the youth of our country, he said."Till a few years ago, in our country, in the space sector, no one even thought about start-ups. Today their number is more than a hundred", he said giving an example of Chennai and Hyderabad which have two start-ups – Agnikul and Skyroot.
"These start-ups are developing launch vehicles that will take small payloads into space. Through this, the cost of Space Launching is estimated to come down significantly.
Similarly, Dhruva Space, another Start-Up of Hyderabad, is working on High Technology Solar Panels for Satellite Deployer and Satellites", said Prime Minister.
He also mentioned Tanveer Ahmed of Digantara, another space start-up that is trying to map waste in space.
"I have also given him a challenge that they should evolve work technology, which can solve the problem of waste in space. Both Digantara and Dhruva Space are going to make their first launch from ISRO's launch vehicle on the 30th of June", he said.
Similarly, Neha, the founder of Astrome, a space start-up based in Bangalore, is also working such flat antennas which will not only be small, but their cost will also be very low. Demand for this technology can be, Modi said would be all over the world.
Modi said he also met Tanvi Patel, a school student of Mehsana, "working on a very small satellite, which is going to be launched in space in the next few months."
The Prime Minister said like Tanvi, about 750 school students in the country are working on 75 such satellites in the Amrit Mahotsav, and "it is also a matter of joy that, most of these students are from small towns of the country."
Modi turned on to progress in sports in the country and mentioned that Country was holding Chess Olympiad in Chennai from July 28 with the participation of 180 countries.
He praised Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra for "setting new records of success", winning the silver at Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland and the country the gold in Kuortane Games.
"In the recently held Khelo India Youth Games too, our players set many records. You would love to know that a total of 12 records have been broken in these games - not only that, 11 records have been registered in the names of female players. M. Martina Devi of Manipur has made eight records in weightlifting", he said.
Similarly, Sanjana, Sonakshi and Bhavna have also made different records."With their hard work, these players have proven how much India's prestige is going to rise in the international sports arena in the coming times, he said.
Prime Minister specifically praised sportspersons who made big though coming from low economic backgrounds and small towns.
Modi praised woman cricketer Mithali Raj who retired from the game recently. The successful efforts related to ‘waste to wealth’ was what Modi spoke about next in his radio talk.
"One such example is that of Aizwal, the capital of Mizoram. There is a beautiful river 'Chitte Lui' in Aizwal, its banks were full of plastic and polythene waste.
"The organization working to save the river, decided to build a road using this polythene, that is, the waste that came out of the river. "From that, in a village in Mizoram, the state's first plastic road was built… that is cleanliness and development as well", he said.