Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener T.P. Ramakrishnan, MLA, has alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) did not oppose the Emergency all the time.

He was opening a seminar titled ‘Memories of the Emergency and neo-fascist threats’ here on Wednesday. It was organised by the Keluettan Centre for Study and Research to mark the 50^th anniversary of the proclamation of the Emergency on June 25,1975.

Mr. Ramakrishnan claimed that there were documents showing that the RSS top brass had offered their help to then Union government led by Indira Gandhi to implement the Emergency. “We need to understand the reality in this regard,” he said. Mr. Ramakrishnan, a local committee secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] during the period, was imprisoned and tortured by the police at that time.

Meanwhile, he also objected to the observation that the current BJP government was a fascist one. “It has not become fascist as yet, but certainly the government is exhibiting some fascist tendencies. It is another form of fascism,” he said. Mr. Ramakrishnan alleged that the Union government was implementing a “new form of Emergency” in the country. It was giving a free hand to the corporates and curtailing the rights of the labour class. “The new labour codes that have replaced some of the age-old labour laws are detrimental to the interests of the working class,” he said.

Sebastian Paul, former MP, delivered a lecture recalling the horror of the Emergency. Mr. Ramakrishnan later released Vilakkukal Ananja Rathri, a book on Emergency authored by Mr. Paul, by handing over a copy to V. Vaseef, State president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India. Some of the political activists who were jailed and tortured during the Emergency were honoured. K.T. Kunhikannan, Director, Keluettan Centre for Study and Research, was present.