STORY OF INDIA AFTER EMERGENCY AND JANATA
PARTY
This particular
chapter deals with the happenings after proclamation of internal emergency and
rise of a new political party in Indian politics named by Janata Party. Time
changes and so as the situation as well. it was when Indira Gandhi was no more
the prime minister of India. It was the year 1977 when Indira Gandhi lost the
general election and after that everyone was asking her about the loss during
the internal emergency. And most importantly it was for the first time in the
Indian democracy that a non-congress government was ruling the country under
the leadership of Morarji Desai. He had been expelled by Indira Gandhi led
congress after Indira becoming the prime minister of the country. Then it was
his time when Indira Gandhi suddenly declared the general election after the
relaxation of Internal emergency of nineteen months. After the relaxation of
internal emergency, the situation of the whole country was like the country was
getting second time freedom from the authoritarian government led by Indira
Gandhi. All the political prisoners were released and they formed a new
political party named by Janata Party with alliance of congress (O), Jansangh
and socialist party. Morarji Desai was the president of Janata Party. Under the
active supervision of great politician Jayaprakash Narayan the Janata Party
decided to fight in the election. And in the election the result went against
Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi’s congress party could manage to get 154 seat and
Janata Party backed the majority with 295 seats. Even Indira has lost her own
seat as well. she had to bend herself before the plebiscite. And then Janata party was asking Indira Gandhi
for the loss during the proclamation of internal emergency. But the problem
also stated to emerge in Janata Party that the leaders of the party started to
think about their personal political ambitions. After the election result it
was final by then that Janata Party will be the ruling party for the next term
of our country. but again there was a big question before the party that who
will be the prime minister because there were three candidates who were wishing
to hold the post of prime minister and they were Morarji Desai, Chaudhury
Charan Singh and Jag Jiban Ram. And the decision was on Jayprakash Narayan and
Aacharya Kripalini to take the name who will be the next prime minister of
India. Finally, it was decided that eight one year-old Morarji Desai to be the
next prime minister. Chaudhury Charan Singh became the home minister and Jag
Jiban Ram holds the Defence ministry. Atal Bihari Bajpayee became the minister
for external affairs and Lal Krishna Advani became the minister for information
and broadcasting. And most importantly the person who defeated Indira Gandhi in
the lection battle named by Raj Narayan became the health minister. After
setting the cabinet Janata Party started calculating the loss during the
internal emergency and for that the government formed a commission under the leadership
of justice Saha and it was popularly known as Saha commission. And from that
move of Janata government the bad time of Indira Gandhi started away. She was
upset and disturbed, most of the time she was thinking about the security of
Sanjay Gandhi. she was more concerned for the future of Sanjay Gandhi. So
Indira Gandhi called her friend Pupol Jayekar and convinced her to go to
Morarji Desai and talk regarding the safety of Sanjay Gandhi. But the try of
Indira Gandhi was fruitless and she had to left the Pradhan mantra niwas and shifted
to another Bangla with the whole family.
It was a very bad time for her and it’s prove was the letter which she
wrote to her brother BK Nehru. She was totally weak and she was not like the
authoritarian Indira Gandhi during the emergency. Because home minister
Chaudhury Charan Singh was quick in his approach to send Indira Gandhi to the
jail as soon as possible. So the CBI was preparing the proceedings to arrest
Indira Gandhi. During that point of time a news came that the minority class
have been attacked in Belchhi of Bihar state and eleven people were burnt in
that inhumanistic happening. This information took almost three days to reach
Delhi but Indira didn’t spare a second to decide that she should reach Belchhi.
That unhappening in Belchhi was one of the heart-breaking incident. It was the
month of July; flood was there in all over in Bihar. Belchhi village was
totally disconnected from other areas. People suggested Indira Gandhi not to go
Belchhi but she had made up her mind that whatever condition will e, she will
any way reach Belchhi. Finally, after a long struggling phase she reached
Blechhi village by putting her life in threat. She was the only hope of the
minority of Belchhi. People were welcoming Indira Gandhi in a great way and
that gave the hope to Indira Gandhi. it was regarded as the turning point for
Indira. She started to believed that her political career is not yet finished.
So after seeing the move of Indira Gandhi that she is active in the politics,
the Chaudhury Charan Singh took a big step on 3rd October 1977 that
was CBI SP NK Singh with his team reached Indira Gandhi’s residence. Because
CBI filed a case of corruption against Indira Gandhi and the team had been to
Indira Gandhi’s house to arrest her. The CBI arrested Indira Gandhi and outside
her residence the common masses were agitating to free Indira Gandhi. Next day
she was forwarded to court and the case was on corruption that Indira Gandhi
engaged in corruption while purchasing the jeeps for election campaigning. Due
to shortage of evidence she was discharged by the court. One-night jail and
next day she was released, yet again Indira Gandhi was on the headlines of the
news. During that time people started to thinking that this Janata government
is more concerned to take the revenge from Indira Gandhi, while they need to be
more alert for the situation of the nation. And Indira Gandhi was quite happy
with that approach of the government. Indira Gandhi got the public support and
sympathy but at the same time she got a new problem few congress leaders from
her party started to think that now Indira Gandhi has lost her political acumen
and that protest went in a long run. So finally Indira Gandhi made a new party
by naming it as congress (I). Another issue for Indira Gandhi was the Saha
commission was issuing notice to her to present in the court room for enquiry.
But she was regularly boycotting the notice of the commission. When the
proceedings in the court started then it was a dramatic situation for the
spectator in the court room because sometime people were applauding and
sometimes abusing as well. in that state of situation people were giving their
part in their court and most of the leaders were giving all the accusation to
Indira Gandhi. so finally commission sent a summon to Indira Gandhi that on 9th
January 1978 she should be present herself in the court. She went to court but
she refused to give any sort of comment on the question, which was raised by
the commission before her. During that time another good thing happened for
Indira that her new part congress (I) won the state elections in Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh. It was the first win for the newly organised party under the
leadership of Indira Gandhi. it was also more than one year to the Janata
government in the centre but the government failed to bring any sort of
developmental change to the country. Everything odd was happening with the
Janata government, corruption was going on, prices of the goods and services
went on increasing. So the internal conflict in the Janata party was emerging
and the party was behaving like an aimless movement. And on the other side
Indira Gandhi was making her side bit more strong. The conflict in the Janata
party was started from the day Jayprakash Narayan took the name of Morarji
Desai as the next prime minister. And Charan Singh was highlighting the
allegation of corruption against Morarji Desai’s son Kranti Desai. So Charan
Singh wrote a letter to Morarji Desai that he wanted investigation over the
allegation on Kranti Desai. At the same time Charan Singh wanted to finalise
all the case of Indira Gandhi as soon as possible for which he wanted to form a
special court for that but prime minister Morarji Desai was against of that. And
in a press meet Charan Singh commented that the present government is not at
all powerful to take any decision. Morarji Desai was searching for a reason so
that he could expel Charan Singh from his cabinet. There was aanother person
who also gainst of Morarji Desai and he was Raj Narayan. So Morarji Desai wrote
a letter to Charan Singh and Raj Narayan and appealed before tem to resign from
their post. And it was a very good news for the Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi
camp. They were searching for this opportunity and they thought these two
expelled minister from the Janata government will make the difference for them.
The Sanjay Gandhi talked to Raj Narayan and Raj Narayan was exposing the facts
and his approach towards Morarji Desai as well. Sanjay Gandhi was pampering Raj
Narayan to quite Janata dal. And in the other side Indira Gandhi was planning
to break the Morarji government. Indira and Sanjay Gandhi were trying to bring
Raj Narayan and Charan Singh to their side, at that time Sanjay Gandhi came to
know that Charan Singh is not quiting Janata dal because his astrologer has
suggested him to do so. So Sanjay Gandhi tried to purchase the astrologer by
giving him bribe but the astrologer was loyal to Charan Singh. After few days
Morarji Desai was bound to called up Charan Singh to his cabinet as the deputy
prime minister. At that time Indira took the advantage of her public support
and she won the Lok Sabha election from Karnataka. But privilege committee of
the parliament submitted the report where Indira found to be guilty that she
had misused the power of prime minister. Then the parlimnet passed the bill to
expel Indira Gandhi from Lok Sabha and to arrest her as well. she jailed for a
week in Tihar jail at Delhi. By that time the report of the Saha commission has
also went out where Indira was found to be guilt for the unhappenings during
the proclamation of internal emergency. Then Janata government formed a fresh
eight commission to evaluate the loss during the internal emergency in the
country. most of the commission was imposing allegations on Indira Gandhi. and
most importantly Triska commission alleged that Indira Gandhi has stolen four
fawl and two eggs and issued nonbailable warrant against Indira Gandhi. And due
to these types of allegations people started to think that this government is
only eying to take revenge from Indira Gandhi. After that Janata government did
a change to the constitution as well in December that it made so difficult
process to any upcoming future government to proclaim emergency in the country.
it was 44th amendment to the constitution. Another problem was
knocking before Indira Gandhi was the verdict of the case of Kissa Kursi Ka
against Sanjay Gandhi was about to come. it was 27th February 1979
and the verdict came that the court jailed Sanjay Gandhi for two years. But Sanjay
Gandhi got the bail as well and again he started planning to break the Janata
government. the monsoon session was about to start and Sanjay Gandhi was able
to convince Raj Narayan that if you will take out your support from Janata
party then congress will support your party and Charan Singh will become the
prime minister. Then congress party chief YR Chauhan brought the misbelief
proposal against the Janata government and by that time the MP’s of the
Jansangh party has already started to resign from the Janata party. Then the
bad time for Morarji government started and all of his near dear supporters
started to leave his party. He was bound to resign from the prime minister post
just few minutes before to thee voting’s. then after the vote it was made final
that Chaudhury Charan Singh will be the next prime minister. But he only lasted
for 23 days as the prime minister of India. Before Charan Singh to reach the
parliament house as the prime minister of the country, Indira Gandhi took her
support from Jansangh and then election was declared all over the country.
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