New Delhi | The BJP on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the Congress on the 49th anniversary of the Emergency, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying it is the biggest example of the opposition party's long history of killing democracy and harming it repeatedly.

BJP president J P Nadda said on 'X' that those who claim to be the guardians of Indian democracy today had spared no efforts to suppress the voices raised in the defence of constitutional values.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the Emergency, imposed by the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 before she lifted it in 1977 and called for elections, is a black chapter in Indian democracy which cannot be forgotten.

Dictatorship and misuse of power were on brazen display during the period, Singh said on 'X', adding that it raises a big question mark on the commitment to democracy of several political parties.

The BJP's trenchant criticism of the Congress came amid a coordinated campaign by opposition parties to paint the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as working against the Constitution.

The Congress and other opposition members carried copies of the Constitution in Parliament on Monday as the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha began.

Modi on Monday also invoked the imposition of the Emergency to target the Congress and called upon people to ensure that it is never repeated.

In his post in Hindi on 'X', Shah said the "arrogant and autocratic" Congress government had suspended people's civil rights for 21 months for the sake of power to one family.

Censorship was imposed on the media, the Constitution was amended and even the judiciary was restrained, he said, paying tributes to those who waged a fight against the Emergency.

BJP chief and Union minister Nadda said the Congress' politically driven decision to impose a state of Emergency had shaken the very pillars of democracy as it tried to trample over the Constitution given by B R Ambedkar.

"During this period, those who today claim to be guardians of Indian democracy left no effort to suppress voices raised in defense of constitutional values," he said.

"I am proud that our Party belongs to that tradition which resisted the Emergency tooth and nail and worked to protect democracy," Nadda added.