The 21-month Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government was not just a dark period for Indian democracy that demonstrated how absolute power corrupts absolutely, but a landmark event that altered the course of Indian politics and displayed how the Indian voter can forgive its leaders for many excesses, but not arrogance.
Fifty years on, most of the key players that starred in that tumultuous time are no more, but the Emergency’s example is cited every time brute power threatens to undermine the citizen’s rights.
Here is a look at that watershed event:Â
This iconic photo by Raghu Rai captures Indira Gandhi’s authority
The Background
To understand the Emergency, there is a need to look at how tall the stature of Indira Gandhi was in the years preceding it. The Congress split in 1969 and this was followed by a concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s office. In the 1971 Lok Sabha election, the Congress won 352 Lok Sabha seats on Mrs Gandhi’s slogan of Garibi Hatao and she established herself as the ‘real Congress’, edging out the party’s old guard that was known as Congress (O). India’s victory against Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence brought her into international limelight and earned her praise from even the Opposition. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then a Jana Sangh leader, likened Mrs Gandhi to Goddess Durga and she was at her zenith of popularity. Shortly after the 1971 war, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, ironically during her tenure as Prime Minister. The Economist went so far as to call her the Empress of India.
A Landmark Judgment
The biggest events in history start with a ripple. Raj Narain, then a leader of Samyukt Socialist Party, had lost against Mrs Gandhi in the 1971 polls by a margin of 1.11 lakh votes in Rae Bareli. Following his defeat, Mr Narain accused the Prime Minister of misusing state machinery for poll purposes. Mrs Gandhi was accused of using in her election campaign the services of a government official and a rostrum. On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court found the prime minister guilty and declared her election null and void. She was also banned from contesting any election for six years. The Times of India compared the verdict to “firing the Prime Minister for a traffic ticket”. Mrs Gandhi challenged the order in Supreme Court, which said that while she could continue as Prime Minister, she won’t have voting rights in Lok Sabha till her plea was decided.
The Law Tweaks
Before the Emergency was announced, the government prepared the stage. Draconian laws that would later be used to target political opponents, such as the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), were passed, thanks to the Congress’s brute majority. The Defence of India Act, a set of laws enacted during the 1962 war with China, was renewed right after Emergency was imposed. This law suspended fundamental rights of anyone arrested under two. Among its draconian aspects was a provision for detaining a person without explanation. The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act was another law used to target political rivals.
The Proclamation
On June 25, 1975, just before the clock struck midnight, President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed proclaimed a state of internal emergency on the advice of the council of ministers, citing internal disturbances. The government cited threats to national security, an economy in a shambles due to the global oil crisis and also pointed to how strikes had paralysed production. The declaration of the state of Emergency suspended fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. The right to challenge this in court was also suspended.
In her address after the proclamation, Mrs Gandhi said “there is nothing to panic about”. “I am sure you are all conscious of the deep and widespread conspiracy which has been brewing ever since I began introducing certain progressive measure of benefit to the common man and woman of India in the name of democracy,” she said.
The Indian Express published a blank editorial to protest against press censorship
The Fallout
Soon after the proclamation of the Emergency, Mrs Gandhi devised a 20-point economic programme. Alongside began a brutal crackdown against the Opposition. Reports claim the excesses were engineered by a control group comprising loyalists of Mrs Gandhi and led by her younger Sanjay Gandhi. Sanjay Gandhi, who held no Constitutional post at the point, came up with his own five-point agenda for literacy, family planning, tree planting, eradication of casteism and abolition of dowry. These initiatives, especially the family planning move, led to massive excesses such as forced mass sterilisation. Censorship was imposed and any news report against the government attracted consequences. Stooges of the government cleared newspapers before publication. It was during this time when The Indian Express published a blank editorial to register its protest against censorship. The unsuspecting censor missed it.
The late Kuldip Nayar, in his book Emergency Retold, cited another example. “The Statesman published a photograph by the gifted photographer Raghu Rai that told all: it showed a man peddling a cycle with two children on it, a woman walking behind, and scores of policemen standing all around. The caption said that life was normal in Chandni Chowk. A censor official, without realising the message the photo conveyed, ‘passed’ it and was transferred the very next day.”
Photo Credit: Getty
The Arrests
Protests against the Emergency marked the beginning of the political journeys of many stalwarts who would go on to change Indian politics. Among those arrested during this time were Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, Raj Narain, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Vijayaraje Scindia, Atal Bihar Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, George Fernandes and Arun Jaitley.
According to the report by Justice (retd) JC Shah on Emergency excesses, nearly 35,000 arrests were made under MISA and over 75,000 under Defence of India rules.
The Fightback
Several organisations, including the RSS, Left and the Sikhs’ ‘Democracy Bachao Morcha’ launched movements against the Emergency. But the figure who stands tall in the resistance is Jayaprakash Narayan, who once affectionately called Mrs Gandhi ‘Indu’ and backed her wholeheartedly as she took on the Congress old guard after Jawaharlal Nehru’s death.
But in the aftermath of the Allahabad High Court verdict, JP, as he was popularly called, was on the other side. In a massive rally in Patna’s Ramlila Maidan, JP recited Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s iconic lines that became a battle cry against Mrs Gandhi’s dispensation: “singhasan khali karo ke janta aati hai” (vacate the throne, the people are coming). Soon after the Emergency was imposed, JP was arrested. A diabetic, he launched a fast unto death. In a letter to Mrs Gandhi, in which he sarcastically called her Mr Prime Minister and not ‘Indu’. “I have watched with dismay and growing agony the way you have been pushing down the country ever deeper into the abyss of darkness.”
He was released on November 12, 1975, but the detention had taken a toll on his health that he won’t fully recover from till his death in 1979.
Under JP, leaders of all political ideologies and hues came together to take on Mrs Gandhi. It was under his guidance that the Janata Party was formed that would later crush the Congress in the 1977 elections.
The Big Election
With Constitutional rights suspended due to the Emergency, Mrs Gandhi used the Congress’s majority in parliament to delay the 1976 elections. The next year, she decided to go to the polls. While this surprise decision is often linked to Intelligence Bureau inputs that she was set to sweep the polls, some accounts claimed that Mrs Gandhi had told her aides, “I know that I am going to lose… however, it is absolutely necessary for me to call for elections.”
The 1977 election was a do-or-die battle for the Opposition, and forces of different hues came together to take on Mrs Gandhi. The Congress’s old guard, Congress (O) merged with Jana Sangh, Socialist Party and Lok Dal under the banner of Janata Party. The Janata Party pulled off a stunning victory, reducing the Congress score by a whopping 198 seats. What’s more, Mrs Gandhi was defeated in Raebareli by Raj Narain – the only time a sitting Prime Minister has lost an election. In the wake of the election, Janata Party formed the government with Morarji Desai as the Prime Minister.
The Legacy
The Janata Party’s government could not complete its full term due to differences among the many forces under its canopy. Its split in 1979 paved the way for Indira Gandhi’s return triumphant return in the 1980 elections. But the resistance had achieved its objective. The illusion of invincibility had been shattered. Fifty years on, Emergency continues to be a key subject in the barbs exchanged by the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress. While the BJP mocks Congress’s ‘save the Constitution’ slogans by pointing at Emergency, the Congress hits back by describing the Narendra Modi government’s rule as an undeclared Emergency.
