The last caution before declaration of Emergency
The first statement that the cabinet ministers and some chief ministers issued from Delhi on the Supreme Court's decision came in record time. Its cyclostyled copy was available informally from the government's Press Information Bureau within an hour of the Supreme Court verdict. By then, news agencies had not even finished creeding the full text of Justice Krishna Iyer's 23-page order.
The only inference one can draw from this is that the leaders in the government had made up their minds even before the court's judgement was out. The statement was ready or nearly ready. This is confirmed by the way the conditional stay has been twisted to mean the vindication of the Congress party's stand that Indira Gandhi can continue as the Prime Minister and that there was no impediment in the way. (The decision was to take a positive line and the government information media were instructed accordingly.) One wonders what more the cabinet ministers and other supporters of Mrs Gandhi could have said if the stay had been unconditional.
Shorn of propaganda, the stay given by Justice Iyer is not absolute. For, it does not allow Mrs Gandhi either to vote or draw allowances. This is what judges have done in similar cases earlier. Under the law, Justice Iyer could go only thus far. As he himself said, the office of Prime Minister and its functioning were regulated by a separate set of articles of the Constitution.
Now it is left to Mrs Gandhi to decide whether she should continue in office in the face of the conditional stay. Her own counsel, Nani Palkhivala, has said in his arguments before Justice Iyer that there would be 'irreparable damage' to the institution of Prime Minister if unconditional stay was not granted. A conditional stay is a cloud which is bound to cast its shadow on the office. It is a disability with which Mrs Gandhi will have to live. It may not physically come in the way of functioning, but it can eat one up within. It is not so much a matter of level disability as one of conscience. The fact that she has not given her mind encourages the hope that she may still be weighing the issues.
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Indian Express
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The genesis of the Emergency can be traced back to Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, where Raj Narain, a socialist leader of the time, lost in the 1971 national elections. Narain filed a petition before the Allahabad High Court alleging electoral malpractices and accusing Mrs Gandhi, who was already Prime Minister, of using government machinery (including vehicles and personnel) to run her election campaign. Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the High Court of Allahabad found Gandhi to be guilty under several provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Most damagingly, he barred her from contesting elections for a period of six years. The PM swiftly moved an appeal in the Supreme Court, which granted a partial stay on the High Court order. Pertinently, Narain had also approached the Supreme Court seeking the production of a document called the 'Blue Book' that contained security guidelines for the protection of the Prime Minister while travelling. 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New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is staging a drama of observing 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' to mark the Emergency to hide governance failures, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said on Wednesday, arguing that the Constitution faced a threat from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge addressing a press conference at Indira Bhawan in New Delhi. (HT PHOTO) Other Opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) joined the attack against the BJP. 'Modi is raking up Emergency after 50 years to hide his failures. If there is any threat to the Constitution, it is from you,' Kharge said in a special press conference. 'You have brought in an undeclared emergency,' he added. The Congress deliberately held the press conference at Indira Bhavan -- its new party headquarters -- to put up a brave face against the BJP's campaign marking 50 years of the Emergency, which was clamped by then prime minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975. 'Those (BJP-RSS) people who are talking of Samvidhan bachao are now raking up the Emergency after 50 years. It was something people had forgotten and they are now raking it up to hide their own failures,' Kharge said. 'These people failed in governance and their failure is such that people are concerned over inflation, the government has no answer to unemployment, corruption and economic failure. To hide their lies and failure they have staged this drama,' he added. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that the BJP's Emergency campaign 'reflects its guilty conscience' while Kharge maintained that 'a government which does not practice tolerance, fraternity, liberty, should not teach us these things.' The Congress president also alleged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh did not participate in India's freedom movement and quipped that people who didn't contribute for India's independence or in the making of the Constitution were now 'claiming to be its guardians and protectors.' Kharge also said that the country has moved ahead, and Indira Gandhi herself had supported the Morarji Desai government's decision to overturn constitutional amendments made during the Emergency. The Congress chief also took the opportunity to hit out at the Election Commission. 'The EC has become a puppet in the hands of the government. Like we have puppets that are made to do things to entertain. You have a puppet and you (Modi) claim that you are winning elections. You are not winning elections your machine is winning,' Kharge alleged. He also took potshots at the PM and quipped that Modi is a 'Vishwaguru' who cannot solve his country's problems. 'How ironic that @BJP4India observes #SamvidhanHatyaDiwas when, for the last 11 years under PM @narendramodi, India has been living through an UNDECLARED EMERGENCY,' the TMC posted on X. It said that one man and one party had 'replaced the will of 1.4 billion people'. 'History has been distorted beyond recognition, laws are passed without debate, scrutiny, or has reduced itself to BJP's rubber stamp,' the party posted on X. Kerala chief minister Pinarai Vijayan said, 'The declaration of Emergency in 1975 was not a spontaneous event, but the culmination of tyrannical tendencies that surfaced in independent India. 50 years have gone by, and today we're facing an undeclared emergency under the Sangh Parivar regime, enforced through majoritarianism. Haunting memories of the Emergency should empower us to fight against the oppressive forces that challenge the essence of our democracy today.' BJP leader Sambit Patra defended his party and said, 'The sarcastic remark made today by Kharge on the Emergency is also a mockery of democracy. He questions why a 50-year-old event is being remembered. Mallikarjun Kharge himself says that those who were not part of the freedom struggle should not speak on the subject—so how can he decide that the BJP must not speak about the Emergency?' 'How can Mallikarjun Kharge decide who participated in the freedom struggle and who didn't? Every family in this country had at least one member who was directly or indirectly a part of that movement. Now, he should explain where Sonia Gandhi's family was involved in the freedom struggle.'
