Amit Shah and memories of a Gujarat Andolan that inspired JP's campaign against the Emergency

New Indian Express

5 hours ago

The Navanirman Andolan, launched by the students and middle-class in Gujarat towards the end of 1973, pulled down the state government in a matter of months.
The success of that agitation would go on to spur the successful movement against Emergency that was declared 50 years ago to this day — on June 25, 1975.
Two key leaders involved in the agitation reshaped national politics during the period.
The first was Jayaprakash (JP) Narayan, the Lok Nayak who led the people's movement against then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the Emergency.
The other important figure was Morarji Desai, the leader of Congress (Organisation), which had split from the mother party when Congress (I) was formed.
Morarji went on to become the leader of the Janata Party government that came to power in 1977 after Indira was ousted.
JP came to Gujarat in 1974 after the students approached him to lead the Navnirman Andolan. The Andolan had begun with protests, among other things, against the high food fees at the mess in the Morbi Engineering College. But then it spread and began to be directed against the government of Chimanbhai Patel, the then Chief Minister.
Chimanbhai was forced — by the pressure mounted by the Andolan and its popularity — to resign by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on February 9, 1974.
The movement would inspire JP, who had been wrestling with the problem of how he could mount a serious challenge against the corruption he saw in his home state of Bihar during this period.
"For years I was groping to find a way out. In fact while my objectives have never changed, I have all along been searching for the right way to achieve it. I wasted two years trying to bring about a politics of consensus. It came to nothing...
"Then I saw students in Gujarat bring about a political change with the backing of the people...and knew that this was the way out," he wrote in Everyman's Weekly that came out on August 3, 1974.
The Bihar movement that JP launched, inspired by the Navnirman Andolan, later transformed into the Sampoorna Kranti that forced Indira Gandhi out of power.
Three days after Emergency was revoked, on 24 March 1977, Morarji Desai was sworn in as Prime Minister — at the ripe old age of 81 — the oldest leader to hold the office till date.
Among those who heard stories of those highly-charged days was an 11-year-old Balsevak going by the name of Amitbhai Anilchandra Shah.
On June 25, 2025 — the 50th anniversary of the announcement of Emergency — the now Home Minister shared his memories on X.
"I was a Bal Swayamsevak of RSS then and heard firsthand the excesses and injustices during the dark days of Emergency. The memories of that time, though faded as I was very young then — the suppression, the torture, the blatant assault on democratic values — are still vivid in my memories," Amit Shah recounted.
He also expressed his "immense pride in having been associated with a movement that stood up against this tyranny, and with a leader who fearlessly raised his voice to protect Bharat's democracy and its Constitution (Jayaprakash Narayan)," he added.
Shah slammed the Emergency "imposed 50 years ago, by a despotic ruler, whose sole aim was to preserve her dynastic rule".
It "was one of the darkest chapters in India's history", the Home Minister underlined.