Emergency -1975

            With Monsoon, the month June brings with it the memories of the darkest days that had brought Indian Democracy to the brink of disaster.  On June 25, our only lady PM, probably the only lady dictator of 20th century world, imposed Emergency to protect her own position and drifted towards autocratic rule to curb the checks against the executive power. "Unlike the last Emergency, this time Emergency was declared not because India was in danger but because Indira was in danger”. The pseudo-democrat, rather despot, turned the vibrant democracy into a dictatorial regime snatching away the fundamental rights and with it the liberty to life. In the morning of 26th June, when Indians were waiting for the monsoon rain, little did they know that the dark clouds of Emergency were hovering over their head. And even today, when we flip through those dark pages, the poignant and painful memories flash across our mind and urge us to give the power in our democracy in safe hands.

Backdrop of Emergency: Indira was at her wit’s end by the unprecedented and inexorable success of Jayprakash Narayan’s movement against the corruption of her Govt. that sparked off in Bihar and then escalated to other parts of the country. And she was also stung by the Verdict of Allahabad Court, where her Father and Grandfather had once practiced, that found her guilty for illegal electoral practices. Further moving to SC, Mrs Gandhi was denied of her voting power in the parliament that jeopardized her post.  Although it was generally admitted that the charge against her was a technicality, many of her own colleagues advised that she should resign temporarily until her appeal was heard and let one of her most loyal person keep the seat warm. At one stage Mrs Gandhi was swayed by this argument, but her younger son Sanjay, a layman in Indian politics, dissuaded her from resigning. Plan was made to protect her and to stun India by imposing presidential rule, where, ironically, all the power would be vested in the hands of the Iron Lady. Decision of Emergency was made hot on the heels of the SC’s order forbidding her to vote in parliament. Once the decision was taken, it was executed with remarkable swiftness. And Mr President acted as a rubber stamp of Gandhi’s Govt. He did not even use his power under article 78 that empowers him to ask the PM to revisit her disastrous decision and simply signed on the death warrant of Indian Democracy. As Prominent Historian Ramachandra Guha puts it “ a pliant president, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad, signed it as soon as it was put in front of him”.It is often said that Indira acted according to the advice of Sanjay, the dictatorial son of Indira, who was completely insensitive to Indian Democracy and its values and was really the man behind many atrocities inflicted on the Indians. Claims say that the mother-son duo planned to continue this for at least 20 years.

Aftermath : As soon as the Emergency was declared, Police swooped down on the opposition leaders and dissidents taking scores of giants like JP, Moraji Deshai, Vajpayee, Advani, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and many others off to jail. Indira did everything to topple down her rivals and to save her own post. An average of 36,000 were put behind the Iron bars by the edict of Iron lady under MISA –the maintenance of Internal Security Act- often criticized as Maintenance of Indira and Sanjay act by the victims of her political vengeance. Even she stooped to lock off her father’s friend JP, the man who was held to be the successor of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideologies, paying no heed to his deteriorating health. The ‘Habeas Corpus’ act was assassinated to satiate Indira and detainees were treated like criminals and subjected to brutal and inhuman torture. Organisations like RSS,CSS, ABVP were banned and its prominent leaders were arrested. Some of the leaders went underground in disguise. For example Narendra Modi and Indira’s most outspoken critic Subramaniam Swamy disguised as Sikhs in the fear of being arrested.  Even the common man was not spared and just a trivial criticism of Emergency or Indira or the Govt was sufficient to invite arrest. The inhuman acts outstripped even the repression of British Raj. Even during Raj, jails were less crowded and jailors, more humane. The kind of atrocities Indira inflicted on humanity is evident from the inexplicable tortures on the family of George Fernades, a fire brand socialist who led many strikes against her. Being unable to capture George, the govt apprehended his brother for no reason and tortured. His friend, actress Snehalata Reddy, was also imprisoned, placed in a damp cell and denied food, her asthma was seriously aggravated and she finally succumbed. The Dignitaries like Rajmatas of Jaipur and Gwalior were put in jail like criminals. Everyone across the country, who even tried to point a finger towards Indira was jailed and his property attached. Indira showed no sympathy for the people who had once voted her to power and her dictatorial regime continued for 21 months spreading terror in every nook and corner of the country. Police were given full power and tortured the innocents under the shades of MISA. Even unconstitutional deeds of the police went unpunished like the murder of a student activist in Kerala.

            Indira left no stone unturned to keep her in a safe position, be it by strangling the democracy even. For her lust for power, she even made frivolous attempts to cripple the Judiciary. Taking advantage of the opposition MPs locked away in jail, Indira passed amendments of constitution to prolong her dictatorship. To keep the Judiciary away from her regime, she passed the 38th Amendment a month after Implementing Emergency that barred the judicial review of Emergency. The 39th Amendment, introduced two week later, stated that the election of prime minister cannot be challenged by the Supreme Court.

            Among the casualties of Emergency, was the freedom of press. Indira choked the voice of the press. Giving a strong blow to the fourth pillar of democracy, she censored the press and correspondents of foreign media were expelled. . It was because Indira was careful of maintaining a good front before the world, and she knew that the world powers would intervene if the news went out. So the night Emergency was declared, the power supply to all the presses in Delhi was cut off in the direction of Sanjay so that there would be no news the next day and Indira would be able to produce plausible reason for declaring the Emergency. No newspaper could publish news regarding emergency, strikes, processions etc. Sanjay turned every news into Pro-Indira . Guidelines were issued on what did and did not constitute ‘news’. All news articles had to be sent to the Govt for approval before publishing it the next day. News-agency-owners transgressing the norms were jailed.

            Apart from the aforesaid brutalities, the most heinous crime on humanity during Emergency was the forcible mass sterilization of the Govt under Sanjay’s direction, masked in the name of Family planning. The hand of the state fell heavily on people in the towns, but the villagers were not spared either. Everyone was bound to undergo vasectomy and those who refused were jailed under MISA. Police van would come, pull out everyone from 8-80 and take them to the health center. And even there were violence in protest of the sterilization and the police opened fire on the Mob. The northern states were largely under scale and school teacher and police men were given sterilization quotas. In many cases, the teacher themselves had to undergo vasectomy.  No one could be spared from this. In yet another case, police had opened fired on the mob killing at least 50(unofficial claim). Later they justified the act in the name of abolishing slum dwellers from Delhi.

         
   This in no case is the complete list of the draconian regime of Indira and a lot of facts about the Emergency are yet to be unveiled that had been deliberately suppressed by the then Govt.  However, the dreadful regime ended and India survived. The Incessant struggle of our leaders, defying the torture of Indira to suppress them, to bring back democracy on track finally paid off.  But it was a lesson to learn.We have a lot to derive from this harrowing chapters. All throughout this years India has tried to fix the torn pages. But the blot is still there. And the Young India should go through those dark pages to know and learn lesson and resolve not to let it happen again and,obviously, should not forgive Indira.

by    -   Soumyakanta Senapati