It is past midnight. The calendar on my laptop shows 26th June, the date on which, forty years ago, newspapers across the country carried news of the proclamation of Emergency in India. They say it was actually proclaimed on 25th June, 1975. Who knows the actual time the then President of India signed the order? Who knows at what time Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan was arrested for asking for total revolution? Who knows at what time Atal Behari Vajpayee was put behind bars for being an opposition leader?
There was a statement by Prime Minister Modi during the day today, calling Emergency the blackest phase of Indian democracy. That is all. No hullabaloo by the press which had lost its voice on this day, with a single signature of the then President.
There was a statement by Prime Minister Modi during the day today, calling Emergency the blackest phase of Indian democracy. That is all. No hullabaloo by the press which had lost its voice on this day, with a single signature of the then President.
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| President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declares emergency in India after finding the security of India threatened following Allahabad High Court judgment declaring Indira Gandhi's election as MP null and void |
I find it hard to sleep. Till late night the youngsters in the family were asking me questions about Emergency. They wanted to know the truth about Emergency, about my personal experiences. They have gone to bed now. But I am still lost in the reminiscences of the days when I was studying the definitions of Democracy in college and experiencing it differently in real life.
I give credit for people’s renewed interest in the blackest chapter of free India to Lal Krishna Advani’s recent statement, “… I don't have the confidence that Emergency cannot happen again," adding "I do not see any sign in our polity that assures me..." Advani talked about ‘polity’ but people interpreted it the way it suited them. Media saw it as another source of TRPs, without stepping out of their luxurious air-conditioned cabins! Political parties other than the BJP interpreted it as a barb against Modi. Kejriwal jumped so much with joy that he went to the extent of seeking an appointment with Advani with a hope to encash the statement in his favour. But Advani clarified that he had spoken "precisely about the Emergency in the interview, and there is absolutely no reason to interpret it in the present day context, as there is no reference to it. I have spoken only about Emergency."
I am glad that the young generation is interested in knowing about the Emergency.
They kept asking and I kept sharing. I re-lived all the moments yet again.
I had attained adulthood. I got up in the morning to be greeted by a newspaper with the headline that all prominent political leaders of opposition like Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, had been arrested during the early hours of the day. It was shocking!
I give credit for people’s renewed interest in the blackest chapter of free India to Lal Krishna Advani’s recent statement, “… I don't have the confidence that Emergency cannot happen again," adding "I do not see any sign in our polity that assures me..." Advani talked about ‘polity’ but people interpreted it the way it suited them. Media saw it as another source of TRPs, without stepping out of their luxurious air-conditioned cabins! Political parties other than the BJP interpreted it as a barb against Modi. Kejriwal jumped so much with joy that he went to the extent of seeking an appointment with Advani with a hope to encash the statement in his favour. But Advani clarified that he had spoken "precisely about the Emergency in the interview, and there is absolutely no reason to interpret it in the present day context, as there is no reference to it. I have spoken only about Emergency."
I am glad that the young generation is interested in knowing about the Emergency.
They kept asking and I kept sharing. I re-lived all the moments yet again.
I had attained adulthood. I got up in the morning to be greeted by a newspaper with the headline that all prominent political leaders of opposition like Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, had been arrested during the early hours of the day. It was shocking!
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| National Herald dated 26th June, 1975 |
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| The Hindu dated 26th June, 1975 |
This was done under the draconian MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act).
It was also reported that a state of Emergency had been proclaimed in India by the then President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on the advice of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
Emergency was declared in India earlier too - in 1962 during the Indo-China war and again in 1971 during the Indo-Pakistan war. But it was different this time. There was no external aggression in sight. It had been proclaimed because Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha from Rai Bareilly constituency had been declared ‘null and void’ by the Allahabad High Court on the charges of misuse of Government machinery for her election campaign and Indira Gandhi was not ready to honour the High Court judgment and step down. While the judicial jugglery was on, Jayaprakash Narayan, in a huge rally in Delhi on 25th June 1975, called for a civil disobedience campaign to force the resignation of the Prime Minister. In response, Emergency was imposed to tackle the civil disobedience campaign before it could ever take off!
It was also reported that a state of Emergency had been proclaimed in India by the then President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on the advice of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
Emergency was declared in India earlier too - in 1962 during the Indo-China war and again in 1971 during the Indo-Pakistan war. But it was different this time. There was no external aggression in sight. It had been proclaimed because Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha from Rai Bareilly constituency had been declared ‘null and void’ by the Allahabad High Court on the charges of misuse of Government machinery for her election campaign and Indira Gandhi was not ready to honour the High Court judgment and step down. While the judicial jugglery was on, Jayaprakash Narayan, in a huge rally in Delhi on 25th June 1975, called for a civil disobedience campaign to force the resignation of the Prime Minister. In response, Emergency was imposed to tackle the civil disobedience campaign before it could ever take off!
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's official letter to the President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
recommending that Emergency be declared in India - the President gladly accepts.
“Dictatorship has been declared in India”, the word spread like wildfire. Time proved that this was, indeed, dictatorship.
You do not understand the true meaning of things like democracy and civil liberties as long as you enjoy them. We realize their worth and value only when they are taken away from us. Emergency was proclaimed under Article 352 of the Constitution which supposedly was beyond the purview of the judiciary to question or inquire into.
Arrest of prominent leaders was just the beginning. It was followed by arrest of more than 50,000 people, or if the unconfirmed sources are to be believed, lakhs of people all over India.
India practically turned into a Unitary state from Federal, as enshrined in our constitution, with all powers usurped by the Central Government. All the seven freedoms granted by Article 19 of the Indian constitution to individuals - namely the Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Movement, Freedom of Residence and Settlement, Freedom of Property and Freedom of Profession, Occupation, Trade or Business - were suspended.
Many groups and parties including the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), that could possibly help the JP movement, were banned.
The rights of the Fourth Estate i.e. the Press and Media, were curbed and it was practically censored with several guidelines being issued both formally and informally. The Press was unambiguously advised to suppress news and assist the Chief Press Advisor of the Government.
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| The Indian Express leaves its editorial blank as a mark of protest against press censorship. Later, press succumbed to the pressure by the executive and cooperates with it |
Initially, some newspapers resisted and left parts of their pages blank, originally carrying the news/views censored by the government as a mark of protest against censorship. However, later they too succumbed to the pressure.
Terror and suffocation prevailed. One feared to utter a single word against the government or even representatives of the government. Every policeman represented a dictator. There were rumours that the Government had appointed more policemen in plainclothes and everybody was under strict supervision. Anybody could be an agent of the Government. They could charge you of treason if you uttered a single word against the then Government.
Most of it was rumour. Spread by people out of ignorance and fear, and perhaps deliberately encouraged by the Government as it helped the environment of fear spread and engulf every individual, much to the liking of the then Government.
But this information is accessible on the internet to everybody who wants to know. The youngsters wished to know my ‘personal experiences’.
Having just attained adulthood and written the Part I exam of graduation, I was a nobody. What personal experiences worth sharing could I have?
But they kept insisting and I had to delve deep into my memories, and found that despite being a nobody, I too had some stories to tell.
Within a few days after the Emergency was proclaimed and the RSS was banned, thousands of its workers and leaders were detained and everybody who had been associated with this nationalist organisation was waiting for his or her turn with a spirit of “Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna Ab Hamare Dil Me Hai” (The desire for revolution is in our hearts) as stated by the freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil.
I was a regular swayamsevak (volunteer) of RSS up to standard IX. Even as a boy, I looked after its five evening Shakhas (branches). They promote you quite early in the RSS. Thereafter, I severed my links with the local leaders of RSS due to some personal differences. I had not been in touch with the RSS leadership for more than four years, which was quite a long period for the adolescent that I was.
But I came to know through some friends that the police was making enquiries about me, and that my name was there in the list they had prepared for the next round of arrests in the area. I had no source to confirm the veracity of these reports. But my family was worried. For them I was a kid, and they could not bear the thought of a kid in their family to be arrested for service to the nation.
Terror and suffocation prevailed. One feared to utter a single word against the government or even representatives of the government. Every policeman represented a dictator. There were rumours that the Government had appointed more policemen in plainclothes and everybody was under strict supervision. Anybody could be an agent of the Government. They could charge you of treason if you uttered a single word against the then Government.
Most of it was rumour. Spread by people out of ignorance and fear, and perhaps deliberately encouraged by the Government as it helped the environment of fear spread and engulf every individual, much to the liking of the then Government.
But this information is accessible on the internet to everybody who wants to know. The youngsters wished to know my ‘personal experiences’.
Having just attained adulthood and written the Part I exam of graduation, I was a nobody. What personal experiences worth sharing could I have?
But they kept insisting and I had to delve deep into my memories, and found that despite being a nobody, I too had some stories to tell.
Within a few days after the Emergency was proclaimed and the RSS was banned, thousands of its workers and leaders were detained and everybody who had been associated with this nationalist organisation was waiting for his or her turn with a spirit of “Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna Ab Hamare Dil Me Hai” (The desire for revolution is in our hearts) as stated by the freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil.
I was a regular swayamsevak (volunteer) of RSS up to standard IX. Even as a boy, I looked after its five evening Shakhas (branches). They promote you quite early in the RSS. Thereafter, I severed my links with the local leaders of RSS due to some personal differences. I had not been in touch with the RSS leadership for more than four years, which was quite a long period for the adolescent that I was.
But I came to know through some friends that the police was making enquiries about me, and that my name was there in the list they had prepared for the next round of arrests in the area. I had no source to confirm the veracity of these reports. But my family was worried. For them I was a kid, and they could not bear the thought of a kid in their family to be arrested for service to the nation.
There were reports that several leaders including Jayaprakash Narayan and Vajpayee lost their health during the period they were jailed. There were several stories of third degree torture to several people who dared to go against the Government. These reports of tortures by our own Government were no less disturbing than the stories of atrocities on freedom fighters by the British rulers.
I went ‘underground’. I feel amused to think of those days now. Today, I doubt that my name was even there on that list. But I did go underground for about a week as nobody in my family could reject this unconfirmed report, and they wanted to see me safe.
When I came back home, after about a week, my young mind had resolved that I would fight the Government against this draconian proclamation and against the atrocities on people. I got in touch with RSS activists I had known when I used to be active and shared my resolve with them. We started meeting under lamp posts and in the market-places. But it was fraught with risks. We could not meet for long and often had to disburse before completing the stories we were sharing as we suspected someone watching us. And what kind of stories did we share? Stories of our freedom fighters, of how fearless they were and how they gave away their lives for the sake of their Motherland.
I thought of a novel way. I formed a library in our locality. It was opened at the residence of an unsuspecting friend of ours whose father was a local Congress leader. We named the library “Veer Shivaji Smarak Bal Pustakalay” (Veer Shivaji Memorial Children’s Library). We ran this library with complete dedication. Most of the collection was contributed from our homes. They were mostly books on martyrs and their stories. We started meeting there regularly at different hours so that nobody came to know about our activities.
But we realised that even after weeks, we had not any practical steps. In fact, we could not think of anything we could practically do. We were just trying to keep one another motivated. We needed to broaden our base and take some action to change the state of affairs.
Months after months were spent repeating the same things over and over again, until we came across a senior who, impressed with our dedication and commitment, invited us to a meeting at a bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi. When we reached there, it turned out to be the residence of Gulzarilal Nanda, ex-PM. Deserted by the leadership and forlorn, Mr. Nanda was running a trust called Manav Dharm Mission. He was later awarded the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, for his outstanding contribution to the nation. We started going there every week. We were addressed by him on two occasions about the principles of austerity and temperance that the trust was promoting. It was good hearing him. But our priority was to help our country getting rid of the Emergency. Principles like austerity were boring for us youngsters at that point in time. Several RSS workers from various parts of the city had already joined the trust. After attending the meetings of the trust, we would re-assemble in the sprawling lawns of the bungalow, pretending to be chitchatting and resting, where we used to discuss Emergency, politics and also got some news that was not published in the press due to censorship.
All the news we got there proved true later. We later realised that this was how news spread those days, through word of mouth. Some of us even used to print the news we got there on small pieces of paper on letterpress and circulate those papers, though nobody would admitted doing that. Sometimes, we used to smile when the latest news revealed in that meeting and shared by us to others would come back to us through other sources within hours!
Some of us were very excited with the role we were playing. But I was not. I wished to do something worthwhile. Something tangible. I wished to do something practical and be the author of the end of the black chapter of Emergency.
But before I could get an opportunity to do anything, I got busy with my final year exams. In March 1977, the Emergency was withdrawn, thanks to some misleading reports by intelligence agencies that Indira Gandhi could easily win elections if held at that time.
What happened after that is another sad chapter in the history of independent India. Parties which fought for ‘Total Revolution’ under the leadership of Jayarakash Narayan won the election, and appointed a commission of inquiry into the excesses committed during the Emergency, headed by Justice J.C. Shah, a former Chief Justice of India, which, in its 525-page long report found that the provisions of MISA and Defence of India Rules were abused during the Emergency in order to damage the political opponents of the Congress. The Parliament passed an act under which two special courts were set up in May 1979 to ensure speedy trial as per the report. But the Janata Party Government fell in 1979 following internal skirmishes owing to petty egos and Indira Gandhi came back to power in 1980. After this, the Supreme Court of India found that the special courts were not constituted legally, on which pretext no trial was ever conducted. All those indicted by the Shah Commission lived a happy and successful life thereafter. The Shah Commission report was lost and forgotten.
Were there any gains of Emergency? To quote veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, the imposition of Emergency exposed the timidity of Indian people, moral hypocrisy of society, and fallibility of the press, public servants and judiciary.
Advani speaks only about Indian polity. But what has changed since then?
My young friends in the family do not ask me and nor do I tell them that there were certain things I admired during the Emergency. Trains were neat and punctual. Discipline and honesty were something you would not miss even in government departments. Corruption had gone down at least at lower ranks. Delhi was clean and orderly.
Do we need an Emergency once again to get a good governance?
I look outside my window and find the Sun rising. It is dawn. When will India, my nation, witness its dawn?
