Nanded (Maharashtra), Mar 6 (IANS): In a strong accusation, Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has said that a situation worse than the Emergency prevails in the country as those who speak against the government get death threats.

His comments came at a programme in his hometown on Sunday, and a week after he had complained that he was "under surveillance" and his letterhead when he was a minister was misused to create a wrong impression about him for which he lodged a complaint with Nanded police.

Chavan said that the freedom of expression is being taken away and those who dare to criticise the government get threats of elimination, something that did not happen even during the Emergency (1975-1977).

He cited the examples of persons like Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M. M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh who were killed in the past 10 years, and though the investigations are ongoing, nothing happened afterwards.

"The atmosphere in the country has changed. Can we speak freely? It's good if you sing praises of the government... it will even honour you, but it's wrong to speak out about anything critical of the authorities... this is the tragedy now," rued Chavan.

Earlier, other Opposition parties' leaders in the state have received threats from various quarters or have been at the receiving end including Shiv Sena-UBT's Aditya Thackeray, and Sanjay Raut, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Dr. Jitendra Awhad and Congress' Pradnya Satav, and now Chavan, among several more.