THE STORY OF EMERGENCY IN INDIA
This particular
episode deals with the major happenings which led to the emergency in India.
When it was all started after the war against Pakistan in the year 1971 or
after the election results 1970? Because after the election and the war against
Pakistan Indira Gandhi was on top of peoples support. While there was no strong
opposition against Indira Gandhi. Because the foremost reason of no opposition
was all the prominent opposition leaders were jailed. The democracy of India
was under sail; it was regarded as the black time for Indian democracy. How did
it all happen? Let’s start with 25th June of 1975. Till morning 3am Indira
Gandhi, chief minister of West Bengal Siddharth Sankar Ray and chairman of
congress party were preparing the speech of Indira Gandhi which she will be
giving for the people of the nation about the declaration of emergency in the
country. Because before three hours to that preparation an internal emergency
has been declared by the government. After preparing the speech of addressing to
the nation the meeting came to n end among the three congress leader. While
Siddharth Sankar Rey was on the way back to his residence, he met Om Mehta the
home minister for state of that time and from him he came to know that tomorrow
the offices of the news houses and other newspaper organisation will not be
opening up because the electricity to those houses has already been cut by the
government. Few minutes ago he was with the prime minister and the discussion
was going on the emergency and how this will impose? He was giving some ways
and means in relation to emergency in the country. But after hearing to Om
Mehta he again turned back to meet Prime minister Indira Gandhi. He was waiting
for the way of Indira Gandhi. But after twenty minutes of waiting it was not
Indira Gandhi, it was 28year old son of Indira Gandhi came and asked Ray that
what’s up? SS Ray was very close to Indira Gandhi but he was quite unhappy with
attitude and behave of Sanjay Gandhi. Then SS Ray asked Sanjay Gandhi that is
it all true, whatever I am listening now? Then he got a rude reply from Sanjay
Gandhi and then after Indira Gandhi came with a upset and disturbed mind and
she consoled Ray that no high court will close down and Newspapers will publish
their news. Then in the morning most of the high courts were on but very rare
newspapers got published. The prime minister Indira Gandhi called up the
cabinet meeting to talk about the emergency situation of the country, which was
the first ever emergency in the country. Most of the cabinet ministers were unaware
of the fact that within six hours of time how much the country has changed?
There almost fifteen ministers were present in the meeting room. They didn’t
know that why this meeting is being arranged? After few minutes Indira Gandhi
came to the room with Om Mehta. After that she made an announcement before the
ministers that emergency has already been imposed. All the ministers were
simply stunned with that announcement by the prime minister. But no one among
the ministers stood against the emergency on the democracy of the country. It
was such a devastating state for the democracy of the country. Within few minutes
of the meeting the cabinet approved the laws and other acts related to the
emergency in the country. During that point of time former prime minister IK
Gujral was the minister for information and broadcasting and after the meeting
of cabinet ministers he met Sanjay Gandhi. In that meeting Sanjay Gandhi asked
him to show all the news bulletins to him prior to the telecast, which IK
Gujral strongly denied, but at that point Indira Gandhi came in and she ordered
IK Gujral that you should keep a special officer who will bring the list of
news to the prime minister office prior to the telecast. After that meeting
with Sanjay Gandhi it was clear to IK Gujral that now the transfer of power has
taken place and he knew that fact that if he wanted to be the information and
broadcasting minister then he had to obey Sanjay Gandhi. IK Gujral was about to
resign from the post but prior to that his ministry has already been converted.
the telecast of the speech of Indira Gandhi for which the conflict between IK
Gujral and Sanjay Gandhi occurred, it was telecasted in the morning news
bulletin time, when people were tuning to the radio sets for the sake of news
bulletin but people got to hear the voice of prime minister Indira Gandhi and
it was speech in which she was talking about the imposition of internal
emergency in the country. In last eight hours of emergency a lot changes occurred
in the country. According to the article 352 of Indian constitution the
emergency was imposed in the country. And the it was implying that without any
opposition prime minister Indira Gandhi could rule for time to come. there was
no need of election, newspaper houses were not independent, only that news
would get publish which was approved by the government. The government was capable
of passing any law and act in the parliament with the majority of the ruling
party. According to a well-known advocate of that time named by Shantibhusan
the law and order for the common masses were not fruitful and meaningless.
Prime minister Indira Gandhi talked about all those thing which she prepared at
the night with other two congress leaders. She was trying make the common
individuals of the country understand about the emergency. She gave the reason
as well and the reason was few people are putting pressure on the army to take
over the government from the ruling party and for which emergency is being
imposed. She indirectly talked about the comment of Jayprakash Narayan in her
address to the nation. Jayaprakash Narayan was the same person to whom
Jawaharlal Nehru approached to be the deputy prime minister of the country. he
was the most experienced and respected leader of that time. He was person who
never did politics for the sake of position. Question often come into mind of
the people that who is responsible for the emergency? After the war of the 1971
with Pakistan Indira Gandhi was on the top of peoples support. In the year 1972
the state assembly election of few states like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka,
Gujrat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan was about take place and she also declared election
in another three states named by Bihar, Haryana and Punjab as well. it was her
congress party who won the election in those states and after that only
Tamilnadu was such a state where congress was not on the power. She was on the
apex of the popularity but supreme court of India denied two of her government
passed bill one was the purses bill for the princely states and other was the
nationalisation of 14 banks. It was the clash between the government and
judiciary during that time. The result was the 24th and 25th
amendment of constitution. On 5th November 1971 the 24th amendment
took place and according to that amendment it was made clear that cabinet can
do changes to any part of the constitution. It was the supreme court of India
which gave the verdict three year before in the popular case of Golakhnaath
that cabinet can’t change thee fundamental rights of the constitution. in the April
month of 1972 the 25th amendment of the constitution took place and according
to that amendment it was made clear that the nationalisation of banks and the
issues related to the purses bill was converted in the favour of the government.
It was challenged in the supreme court and it is popularly known as the case of
Keshavananda Bharti. It was the fact from which the situation of emergency
started with. It was for the first time that a bench of 13 judges who gave the
verdict that cabinet has no such power to make changes to the fundamental
rights of the constitution which will change the originality of the
constitution and it was a loss for Indira Gandhi. It was her government,
majority was belonging to her party and even the president VV Giri was also in
support of her because she supported VV Giri to became the president but
judiciary was belonging to her side. For which the verdict of the supreme court
made her upset and disturbed. She wanted the control over judiciary at that
point. She wanted committed judiciary which means the judiciary will be in
support of the government and the verdict will be in favour of the government
as well. then she took such a decision which changed the face of Indian
judiciary at that point of time. After the verdict of the popular case Keshavananda
Bharti the chief justice of India SM Sikri retired and according to rules of
the supreme court it was the next senior judge of the court who will become the
next chief justice of India but justice AN Ray became the chief justice of India
by superseding three other senior judges. Then AN Ray gave ach verdict in
favour of the government whether it was purses bill or bank nationalisation.
And it was the solo moto of appointing AN Ray as the chief justice of India
because Indira Gandhi wanted to have control over the judiciary which she could
able to do. After AN Ray’s appointment as the chief justice of India three
senior judges resigned from their post. With this decision of the government Jayaparaksh
Narayan was against of the government. he was also known as JP, he was one of
the great freedom fighter during the freedom struggle of India against the British
raj. After the independence he left the active politics and he engaged himself
in doing social welfare for the society. He was internationally known for his
attempt for social equalisation and social welfare. After the demise of his
wife and his declining health condition compelled him to return to his native
village in Bihar while the whole nation was against of the government
authoritarian approach. Then he protested against the government to change the
approach. Then he wrote an open letter in favour of all the cabinet ministers
about the issues related to the appointment of chief justice of India. In one
end India was fighting to capture the whole control over the judiciary and j
the other end the financial condition of the nation was diminishing day by day.
In 1973 the rate off the essential goods and services raised by 23%. And in
1974 the commodity was availed by the rupees of one hundred by that time it was
raised up to rupees 130. In that situation the agitation of Navnirman waked up
in Gujrat, it was the congress rule in the state under the leadership of CV
Patel. On 20th December 1973 Students of the LD Engineering college
in Ahmedabad went for agitation against the high price of mess bill. The student’s
agitation got supported by the most of members of the state and then on 25th
January the students called for the stop all over the state. Police fired on
the agitators and to control the situation government called up the army. At last
the demand of the student were kept by the government and the chief minister CV
Patel resigned. More than one hundred people were killed, three thousand people
got injured. More than eight thousand were arrested for the agitation. Jayprakash
Narayan was not direct related to the agitation but he was influenced by that
agitation in Gujrat. Then another problem came before the government and that
was the agitation by the student in Bihar. the turning point came on 18th
march 1974, when a huge clashed happened in between the police and students.
The agitators were demanding the resignation of the chief minister of the state
Abdul Gafur. Jayprakash Narayan felt restless by the agitation and the approach
of the Bihar government. By 30th March 1974 it was clear that
Jayprakash will be leading the campaign against congress government. it was for
the first time that Jayprakash Narayan was against of congress government which
he was leading. He was against the policy of the congress government. Indira
Gandhi took that personally and she indirectly replied Jayaprakash as well. the
direct fight between two leading leaders of the country were face to face. But
there was another big problem for Indira Gandhi. Jayprakash went for silent
rally against the congress government in Patna on 8th April 1974.
The popularity and the supporters to Jayaprakash was one of the major problem
for Indira Gandhi’s government. At the same time all the railway workers gave
the ultimatum to the government to agree on their proposal and George Fernandez
was the leader of that agitation. From 2nd May 1974 the railway
workers went on agitation and government arrested more fifty thousand railway
workers to stop that agitation. The families of the railway workers were
evacuated forcefully from their official quarter. The government itself
converted a simple industrial dispute to a civil war like thing. The opposition
party and many other leaders were giving their support to Jayaprakash movement
against the congress government. CPI was the only non-congress party which
didn’t provide it’s support to Jayapraksh’s movement. Finally, on 1st
December 1974 both the leader Jayprakash and Indira Gandhi met each other to
compromise things. Jaypraksh wanted to meet Indira Gandhi personally but while
he reached the office of the prime minister he found another two persons with
Indira Gandhi and they were YB Chauhan and Jagjiban Ram. In that meeting Jayprakash
demanded the resignation of Bihar chief minister and many more. Even if Indira
Gandhi was listening to the demands of the Jayprakash but she didn’t give any
sort of positive assurance to him. On 1st November 1974 Indira
announced before the masses in Ramleela Maidan, Delhi that she will not be
cancelling Bihar government and then in reply Jayprakash led the agitation on 4th
November 1974 in which he had to face the lath charge of the police as well.
One of the hero of the independent India was facing such a treatment from the
government of the independent India. At that point of time the whole nation was
focusing on two leader’s movement one was Jayprakash Narayan and other was
Indira Gandhi. But lot of changes came to time and judiciary came into force as
well. In fact, the verdicts of the courts were also one of the major reasons
behind reason of imposing emergency. In
the 1971 election Indira Gandhi won by more than one lakh votes but her
opponent in that election named by Raj Narayan filed a case in Allahabad high
court that she engaged in corrupted practices to won the election. Advocate Shantibhusan was the lawyer for Raj
Narayan. Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha was hearing the case. He was a strict judge
during that point of time. Question was that can he give verdict against the
prime minister. It was for the time in the Indian history of judiciary that the
prime minister of the country was supposed to be in the dice of a court. Date
was 18th March 1975 prime minister Indira Gandhi arrived at the court
room and she answered the questions of the court for more than five hours.
Indira Gandhi and her supporter have made up their mind that the verdict of
Allahabad high court may go against of them. After that day chief justice of
Allahabad high court DS Mathur came to the residence of justice Jagmohanlal
Sinha with his wife to convince Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha that he should give
the verdict in favour of the prime minister and then after his name will be
forwarded for the appointment in supreme court. Finally, on 12th
June 1975 the verdict came and that was against Indira Gandhi the prime
minister of the country. According to the verdict the court unsitted Indira
Gandhi for six years. And no one was expecting that type of verdict against the
prime minister from a high court judge. After that verdict Indira Gandhi was
thinking about her resignation from the post of prime minister but due to the
pressure by Sanjay Gandhi she didn’t resign. Then congress party challenged the
verdict of Allahabad high court in the supreme court. During that time the
vacation was going on and vacation judge justice VR Krishna Aiyer on 24th
June gave the verdict just before one day of the emergency. In that verdict it
was made clear that Indira Gandhi can’t vote and she will not be getting the
emoluments of an MP but she can be prime minister. A rally of Jayaprakash
Narayan was supposed to be held in Ramleela Maidan on 25th June
1975, where almost five lakh people assembled. The whole opposition was there
in the Maidan. Jayaprakash was leading from the front that day. An in that
historical rally he talked that if the police and the army is thinking that the
rule and regulation is wrong they should not do and obey that. The government
took that in a sense that Jayaprakash is trying to influence the army to take
the government from its power. What was happening to the rally of Jayaprakash
the news and information was given to Indira Gandhi. On that day’s evening it
was decided in the residence of Indira Gandhi that emergency is the only way to
keep the government away from the protester. Sanjay Gandhi was power two person
in the congress party, he was preparing the proceedings for arresting the
protester and Indira Gandhi was preparing the speech of emergency declaration.
Then Indira went to the president Fakeeruddin Ali Ahmed to get his signature
and even president also agreed and signed on the documents of declaration of
internal emergency in the country. Finally, at 11:40 pm president signed on the
proclamation of emergency and that was the time when the democracy of the whole
country was captured by Indira Gandhi. All the things happened for which all
were afraid of. Arresting every protestant was going on everywhere and even at
2:30am the police arrested Jayapraksh Narayan. Electricity of many newspaper
houses were cut in order to stop their publication. Police was not daring to
say Jayaprakash that he is being arrested. Section 107 of the IPC was imposed
on Jayprakash. More than thirteen leaders who were opposing the congress government
for their approach of governance were jailed. Almost one lakh ten thousand
people got arrested without any reason and warrant. And most important no one
hadn’t the right to challenge in the court against their unlawful arrest. No
opposition no strikes no agitation, everywhere just cool and calm sphere. The
whole power was under one man and he was Sanjay Gandhi. He did the first change
in the censorship and he converted the ministry of information and broadcasting
and he replaced by VC Shuklu and at that point whatever news will be telecasted
in the television, it will be firstly approved by Sanjay Gandhi. He gave
emphasis on five things and he gave more importance on one thing that was
family planning. Most of the learned personnel were against of the five thing
policy of Sanjay Gandhi. But at the same time eminent journalist like Khuswant
Singh supported Sanjay Gandhi and he also supported emergency decision of the
government as well. During the emergency the primary things of Sanjay Gandhi
was regarded as the primary thing of the country as well. In Muzzafnagar people
were protesting strongly against the compulsory family planning system of the
government and then police started firing and for which police killed thirty
lives but it couldn’t get published because of the press censorship of the
government. to beautify the cities of the countries for that also campaign went
on and Turkmaan gate event of Delhi is one such event for which people went for
agitation and due to police firing more 150 people were killed. Sanjay Gandhi
was focusing the five rule policy whereas Indira Gandhi was taking the
advantages of the absence of the opposition in the parliament and she was
passing the amendments to the constitution one by one because of which the
originality of thee constitution got changed. And all of a sudden on 18th
January 1997 Indira Gandhi take away the proclamation of internal emergency
form the country and released all the political prisoners and press persons.
And she announced general election. Who is answerable for that nineteen month
emergency?
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