New Delhi, Jun 26 (TOI): On the 43rd anniversary of Emergency on Monday, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said the period should be taught as part of school curriculum so that the youth are sensitised to the dark phase of India’s history and could learn to value the freedom and democracy they enjoy.

Calling the Emergency era a period in which “democracy in our country was sterilised, sapping it of its profound energy and vitality”, Naidu said no sensible government would ever impose Emergency again.

“Now, the threat to individual freedoms is from some misguided citizens,” he said. Critical of the rising levels of intolerance in the name of ‘love jihad’ and ‘cow protection’ or over food habits, Naidu said no citizen who violated the freedom of a fellow citizen should be called an Indian.

Naidu was speaking at the release of the Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Gujarati editions of former journalist and Prasar Bharati chairman’s A Surya Prakash’s book, ‘Emergency: Indian Democracy's Darkest Hour’.

“Core Indian values and ethos have no place for intolerance. Pluralism is ingrained in our outlook. India has taken into its lap all those who came here for different reasons, including the invaders and plunderers,” Naidu said.

Naidu cautioned the youth against intolerance in the name of religion and cow vigilantism. “Such incidents lead to the realisation that individual freedoms can be in full play only when every citizen respects such freedoms of fellow citizens,” he said.