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Fifty years on, we should recall how Indian democracy was tested by the Emergency
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,' warned philosopher George Santayana in his 1905 work, The Life of Reason. Public memory is woefully short; that is why it is rekindled through anniversaries and other periodic events. One historic occasion that we must never forget is the Emergency, imposed by the regime led by Indira Gandhi in 1975. June 25 this year marks 50 years of the event that shook the foundations of our democracy. India is the world's largest democracy. It can also claim to be a successful democracy, except for those 22 months when its democratic credentials were subjected to scrutiny. Two generations have passed since that dark phase. India has learnt enough lessons. Yet, to ensure that Santayana's warnings don't come true, we must keep reminding new generations about that sordid past.
Indians waged battles for decades to secure freedom from the British in 1947. B R Ambedkar, while drafting the Constitution, warned the Constituent Assembly that more than foreigners, we were responsible for the loss of independence. 'It perturbs me deeply to acknowledge that India has lost its independence multiple times… due to betrayal and treachery by its own people,' he said on November 25, 1949, poignantly asking, 'Will history repeat itself?? He was categorical that if political parties fail to raise above partisan interests, 'Indian independence will once again be in jeopardy'. His message to his countrymen was that they must resolve to fight 'to the last drop of our blood' to protect our independence.
It did not take even two decades for the country to come face to face with that dangerous reality. It may be worthwhile to recall those tragic events. The Indian National Congress was split in 1969 and one faction under Morarji Desai became Congress (O-Organisation) while the other under the leadership of Indira Gandhi called itself Congress (R-Requisitionists). When elections were held to the Lok Sabha in 1971, the PM Gandhi-led Congress (R) secured a resounding victory with 352 out of 518 seats. A few months into that government came the victory in the Bangladesh War that catapulted PM Gandhi into a cult figure.
The next few years saw PM Gandhi transforming from a democrat into an authoritarian and arrogant leader. With no Opposition in Parliament, PM Gandhi went about governing in a ruthless and dictatorial manner. Corruption and sycophancy became the hallmark of her governance. Then came two successive challenges to the regime, first in the form of popular agitations in Gujarat and Bihar in 1974 against corrupt Congress regimes, and an Allahabad High Court judgement in June 1975 setting aside PM Gandhi's election in 1971 on the grounds of electoral malpractices. She was disqualified not only from ruling but also from contesting elections for the next six years.
With no relief from the Supreme Court and with Opposition parties, united under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, leading a massive popular movement against her rule, PM Gandhi was left with two options: Follow democratic dharma and step down, or use the emergency provisions available under Article 352 of the Constitution to impose a dictatorship and continue to rule. She chose the latter. She cited a 'threat to internal security' as the reason. How was a challenge to her regime a national security challenge? The answer can be gleaned from the Congress party's mindset — its president, D K Barooah, had said 'Indira is India'.
At midnight on June 25/26, 1975, PM Gandhi had emergency orders proclaimed by then-President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Her government suspended fundamental rights, arrested all the Opposition leaders and gagged the media. The courts were declared ineligible to hear petitions from citizens demanding the restoration of their rights. The saddest day was when the SC upheld the draconian law denying citizens the right to move a habeas corpus petition in its shameful verdict in ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla (1976).
Like all dictators, PM Gandhi, too, believed that she was invincible.
'To be human is to be free', Desmond Tutu, key to South Africa's freedom movement, once said. The people of the country reminded PM Gandhi of that profound urge when they went to the polls in 1977. While senior politicians languished in jail, a silent, leaderless movement, led by cadres of the RSS and other organisations, spread across the country to restore democracy. Not only was Congress defeated at the hustings, PM Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi couldn't even win in their seats.
The Emergency years saw dictatorship in its worst form. A year later, the J C Shah Commission, appointed by the Janata party government in 1977, submitted its report highlighting the excesses of the Emergency including abuse of power, violation of civil liberties, forced sterilisation, the compulsory retirement of 25,000 government employees over their alleged political affiliations and the arrests of more than 1,10,000 people.
Many of those who fought that second freedom struggle against the Emergency five decades ago are in power today. They are committed to protecting the 'freedom, equality and fraternity' that summarised the spirit of our independence. Yet countrymen should always be alert to the warnings given by American jurist Joseph Story: 'Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in order to betray them.'
The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal
