Newspapers were strangled during Emergency, but stayed alive. Now, they're not even breathing

The Print

19 hours ago

Be that as it may, this article would like to draw a parallel between the media landscape during the Declared Emergency of the 1970s and the present-day 'Undeclared Emergency'. We will be dealing with the print media because, barring government-owned Doordarshan, there were no electronic, digital or social media during the Declared Emergency. The excesses committed against the print media during that regime have been codified by two commissions set up by the subsequent Janata Party government. The Shah Commission's findings pointed to planned and unabashed government interference to suspend media freedom. Salient highlights of the report were listed by academic Jhumur Ghosh in his paper on press freedom during the Emergency. They are as follows.
To drive home the point that the Sangh Parivar are the 'Defenders of Democracy', they went to the extent of declaring 25 June as Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas (Murder of Constitution Day). It was a move meant to 'pay tribute to all those who suffered and fought against the gross abuse of power during the period of emergency, and to recommit the people of India to not support in any manner such gross abuse of power in future.'
Today is the 50th anniversary of the infamous Emergency era. The present ruling establishment, which is the beneficiary of this era, has been ruthlessly flogging it and has been claiming all kinds of credit for bringing it to an end. So much so on 26 June 2024, the Lok Sabha speaker, Om Birla, condemned the Emergency in Parliament and appreciated those who opposed it: 'The Emergency had destroyed the lives of so many citizens of India, so many people had died. This House strongly condemns the decision to impose Emergency in 1975. We appreciate the determination of all those people who opposed the Emergency, fought and fulfilled the responsibility of protecting India's democracy…We also believe that our young generation must know about this dark chapter of democracy.' Prime Minister Modi strongly endorsed this action and took this onslaught to the Rajya Sabha also.
The government resorted to cutting off the electricity of newspaper offices on 26 June 1975, the day after the Emergency was proclaimed, in order to buy time to set up the apparatus of censorship. Three days later, when the censorship machinery was in place, the power supply resumed. (This was specific to Delhi) The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting designated newspapers as either hostile, friendly or neutral and issued instructions to withhold or reduce advertisements from hostile and neutral newspapers and to increase advertisements in friendly newspapers The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered a study of the newspapers over the six-month period preceding the Emergency in order to determine each newspaper's attitude to the government and to penalise it accordingly. The government tightened its control over newsprint supply through state monopoly, i.e., State Trading Corporation.
This was the general picture across India. But in Chandigarh, the capital of the vibrant states of Punjab and Haryana, we had a different kind of experience with The Tribune and The Indian Express.
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The Emergency in Chandigarh
Even before the ink dried in the Emergency declaration, Giani Zail Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab, called up NP Mathur, Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh Union Territory, directing him to severely discipline the press. He was specific that The Tribune, a household name in the northwestern states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, should be sealed and shut down. Zail Singh even wanted to arrest Madhavan Nair, the Editor of the newspaper.
Mathur was in a fix. He did not want any formal orders to be issued. So, he called Senior Superintendent of Police SN Bhanot and passed on the instructions of Zail Singh. But Bhanot declined, saying he would not do anything unless he received written orders from the District Magistrate, which happened to be me! Nevertheless, Bhanot went to The Tribune premises and advised those on duty not to print any news unpalatable to the 'powers-that-be'. He also posted a small posse of policemen to keep a watch.
Obviously, this did not have any impact on The Tribune, and the morning paper came out as usual. This infuriated another Chief Minister living in Chandigarh—Chaudhary Bansi Lal of Haryana. In his inimitable style, he threatened that if the Chandigarh Administration was not willing to raid The Tribune, seal its premises and arrest its editor, he would get it done through the Haryana Police. But that threat did not work because we, as civil servants, stood our ground and refused to comply with their orders to shut down the newspaper. All we did was appoint a Censor Officer by invoking the provisions of the Defence of India Rules.
The experience of The Indian Express was unique. The newspaper did not have a Chandigarh edition and had applied for a license. This was pending with me when the Emergency was promulgated. Considering the foul atmosphere, I kept it in cold storage instead of rejecting it. As soon as Emergency was defeated in March 1977, I took it up. I was on the verge of clearing the file when RK Mishra, General Manager of the Group, stormed into my office and demanded immediate approval. He said he has come 'walking on the dead body of Indira Gandhi'. That was too much, and I told him so. I added that he can now forget the Chandigarh edition of the newspaper.
I thought the matter ended there, but there was a big surprise. Within 24 hours, Ramnath Goenka, the supreme boss, called me not to seek an appointment at my office but with a request to host him for a south Indian breakfast at my residence. I could not deny the old war horse. I knew he was very close to Jayaprakash Narayan, with whom I had established a father-son relationship during his imprisonment at Chandigarh. At the breakfast table, he was all charm and mostly spoke in my mother tongue, Tamil. While departing, he casually mentioned the pending request of The Indian Express. Needless to say, it was cleared immediately thereafter! Shekhar Gupta, now founder and Editor-in-Chief of ThePrint, was among the first set of young and dedicated journalists who put the newspaper on an even keel.
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A comatose state
During the Declared Emergency, all newspapers were published with bland, censored news. Hindi and Urdu newspapers from Jalandhar were published with blank pages, with the words 'Censor ki bendh' (Gift of the Censor) printed on all of them. The Hindustan Times from New Delhi left the entire editorial column blank, reminiscent of the struggle during pre-Independence days against alien rule. Veer Pratap, a Hindi daily from Jalandhar, was more poignant. On the 26 June issue, the editorial page was blank with only an Urdu couplet rubber-stamped all over—'I can neither anguish nor petition; it is my fate to choke and die.'
But despite the censorship, the newspapers kept breathing. As soon as the 1977 General Election was announced and Emergency was relaxed, they came back to life and ripped apart the ruling dispensation and its autocratic ways. The Indian National Congress had to pay a heavy price and was soundly defeated at the polls. Rest, as they say, is history!
But in the Undeclared Neo-Emergency of the present day, independent media does not even appear to be breathing. Senior Journalist Pamela Philipose calls it 'virtual strangulation'. This is exactly what is happening to the free media now, when the free flow of information is arrested. It slowly loses its ability to exercise agency, and over time, is rendered comatose, much like the human body.
This is the landscape of India's media now.
Democracy, which the ruling establishment is claiming to defend, is the tragic casualty. Though fifty years is not a very long period historically, shall we exclaim in despair, 'O Tempora! O Mores!' in the manner of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
The author was the District Magistrate of Chandigarh and custodian of JP in jail. He had a ringside view of Emergency and has recently written a book titled Emergency and Neo-Emergency: Who will defend Democracy. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)