The dark days of Emergency and its lessons

Hindustan Times

5 hours ago

It has been 50 years since democracy in India was given a serious blow with the imposition of the internal Emergency, for the first time, on June 25, 1975. It is crucial to recognise the background of this dark chapter in the history of free India. Under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, a legendry freedom fighter who never sought any office, students and young people in India were agitating for democratic, economic, and political reforms. The movement began in Bihar, and as a young student activist, I had the privilege of being an active participant. Soon, it evolved into a mass movement across the country starting with the Gujarat Nav Nirman Movement , followed by the Bihar Chhatra Sangharsh Movement. PREMIUM Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, had become unpopular due to bad governance, corruption, and the economic downturn. (HT Archives)
Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, had become unpopular due to bad governance, corruption, and the economic downturn. While the mass movement truly generated a national appeal, Indira Gandhi suffered another setback. The election petition challenging her election from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat, alleging corrupt practices, was decided against her by the Allahabad high court, and she was barred from contesting for six years. The courageous judge, justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha, a judge from the pre-collegium days who shunned publicity, delivered the verdict. Indira Gandhi challenged this decision in the Supreme Court, which only gave her a conditional stay, raising serious questions on her political authority. There were huge public rallies in Delhi and other places demanding her immediate resignation.
Thereafter, a pliant President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad, signed off on the decision to impose Emergency without cabinet approval. Regardless of all claims by Indira Gandhi, the stark fact was that it was done to save her own chair. What followed were shocking, systematic, and brazen attempts to undermine and destroy Indian democracy and turn India into a prison. Besides Jayaprakash Narayan, leaders such as Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Chandra Shekhar, George Fernandes, Arun Jaitley and many others were detained under maintenance of internal security act (MISA). We had already suffered long imprisonment under this draconian provision in Bihar during the student movement. In fact, I was forcibly lifted by many plainclothes policemen from outside my home and dumped into a jeep and locked under MISA. I suffered injuries in this process.
The press was crushed and made to compromise in the most brazen manner. The electricity supply in Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, which housed many newspapers, was disconnected on the day Emergency was imposed. Eminent editors such as Kuldeep Nayar were also arrested under MISA. LK Advani made a telling comment about journalism in those days: 'If they were asked to bend, they were prepared to crawl.' The scissors of censorship were a must before writing any news or article.
However, newspapers such as the Indian Express, and the legendary Ramnath Goenka, took a bold and defiant stand, for which they had to suffer consequences. Many sinister attempts were made to take over Express by newspaper owners friendly to the government.
Even the judiciary was not spared; judges who showed signs of independence were transferred. About nine high courts of India quashed arbitrary detention orders. However, the Supreme Court, upon challenge, in a very unfortunate and shocking judgment, upheld the sweeping arbitrary powers of the government to arrest anyone during the Emergency. During the course of the hearing, the judges asked the then attorney general, Niren De, whether a person detained in jail had any remedy if he is shot, to which he replied that fundamental rights were suspended, leaving no remedy. Justice HR Khanna, a very brave judge who dissented and upheld the freedom of Indians against arbitrary arrest, was superseded and denied the office of Chief Justice, despite being next in line. In the underground, we used to distribute the famous editorial of the New York Times, appreciating the courage of justice Khanna. In Patna, there was an editors' conference where VC Shukla, then the information and broadcasting minister, had come to command them to support Emergency. We were distributing anti-Emergency literature clandestinely in the hotel. Suddenly, we heard shouting -- an editor was being threatened that he would be arrested under MISA if he had any complaints about the quality of the room.
There was fear everywhere; officers were keen to outdo each other in imposing hardship possible measures. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was banned and information was extracted through torture. Many died inside jails for want of medical aid. JP told us that he was detained in a guest house in Haryana where he saw Morarji Desai walking in the garden; he too had been arrested and was on the first floor. JP asked the police officials to let them meet and at least have breakfast together, but permission was denied. JP subsequently suffered from a serious kidney ailment and was rushed to Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai. Doctors wanted him to sit in the sun in the balcony of 26th floor of the hospital but no permission was given to him because people could wave to him. It was only when a PIL was filled in the Bombay high court that he was permitted to sit in the balcony.
When his condition deteriorated, he was released for rest in Patna. Preparations had also been made for his funeral by the government. God saved him because he had to save Indian democracy. We arranged for his visit to the Kali Temple in Patna University to have a darshan and dispel the rumours being spread by the Youth Congress that he was senile. Even the pujari was arrested. The songs of Kishore Kumar were barred from Akash Vani programmes because he refused to attend a Youth Congress function.
I must record high praise for the sheer courage shown by PM Narendra Modi back then. As an RSS pracharak in Gujarat, he dressed himself as a Sikh and toured the entire state and many parts of the country to organise resistance against the Emergency. The police tried its best to arrest him but Modi, dressed as a Sikh with turban and beard, easily gave them the slip. Other RSS volunteers courageously organised resistance underground.
Sycophancy was the order of the day. DK Barooah, the then Congress chief, coined a shameful expression -- Indira is India and India is Indira. No Congress leaders were willing to speak. The shocking instance of forcible sterilisation, particularly in north India, was a serious blow to basic human values. For family planning schemes, numbers were important, and government officers who wanted promotion, pension or any other benefits had to add to the number of sterilisations. For this, many unmarried young man were also sterilised.
Even the tenure of Lok Sabha was an extended by a year and election law changed retrospectively to shield Mrs. Gandhi.
However, the law of redemption caught up with Mrs Gandhi when she called for general elections in 1977. She , along with her son Sanjay Gandhi , was convincingly defeated. In all of north India, the Congress won just one seat. People spoke conclusively in favour of democracy. The biggest lesson from Emergency was that people knew they had the power to unseat any party or leader who did not perform or sought to take away their rights. Now, no leader will dare to impose Emergency in India. The Congress or its allies are yet to seek a public apology for the atrocities committed during Emergency.
I must record one personal experience. Friends including academics in Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, who used to praise us during student's conference, suddenly became our critics after Emergency. They refused to meet us and conveyed that JP had gone too far. It is a different matter when JP travelled to Delhi from Patna after the massive victory of the Janata Party, many of these intellectuals were standing in line to welcome him. This image of Delhi still sticks.
Ravi Shankar Prasad is a senior parliamentarian and former Union minister.