45 Years of Emergency (Jun 2020)

45 years of "from 12 AM tonight..." 
Since 2016, the words, "from 12 AM tonight..." are dreaded. The wrath of these words was also witnessed when the Prime Minister declared lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic situation. But these words are not used by the current Prime Minister only, but many Prime Ministers in the past too, had fascination with these words. One such incident is of 26th June 1975, when, the then Prime Minister of India, on All India Radio declared that the President has declared emergency in the country at 12 AM tonight. 
Before jumping to the decision, rounds of meetings were held at the residence of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and it was decided that the nation shall be put under the emergency at fortnight of 25th June 1975. [1]
But what this whole drama was about? Why such rounds of meetings were conducted at the PM residence with lawyers and Chief Minister of West Bengal, Siddharth Shankar Ray? [2]
To understand this, we need to go in the past, and understand how such a situation evolved in India and what was the outcome of it. Powerful leaders often fail to grasp the undercurrent of discontent prevailing in the masses, otherwise there had been no revolts in the past against powerful leaders. Something similar happened to Indira Gandhi. Mrs. Gandhi was fighting multiple fights at multiple fronts. She was fighting the discontent of masses due to rising unemployment, corruption in bureaucracy, poverty, interference in judiciary. At the same time the opposition, which consisted leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chandra Shekhar, and the staunchest Morarji Desai, were making it difficult for her to survive the political battle. When all was not going well, a political veteran, hero of Quit India Movement, Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan had returned to the political scene and like never before a student agitation was launched against the Indira Government. The poems of Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, “singhasan khali karo, Janata aati hai”, meaning “vacate the power, the masses are coming”, were recited in the streets.
If that was not enough, Raj Narayan Singh, who had contested election against Indira Gandhi in Rae Bareilly, the famous Congress bastion, had filed a suit in the Allahabad High Court. It was alleged by Raj Narain Singh that Mrs. Gandhi had used government machinery in contesting her elections, which is not allowed even today. He alleged that not only Indira Gandhi used Indian Air Force planes to distribute pamplets but also Indian Army Jeep was used for election campaigning. The matter went to Allahabad High Court, and Justice Jaganmohan Sinha1 found Mrs. Gandhi guilty and asked her to vacate her seat. Also, Justice Sinha ordered Indira Gandhi to not to contest any election for coming six years. 

And the stage was set
To prevent the execution of the High Court decision, Article 356 of the Indian Constitution was invoked1. As per the Article, if there is any internal disturbance in the country, then the President can execute emergency in the country. The student agitation against Indira Gandhi was considered as the internal disturbance, and citing that, draft of an order was sent to the President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, which he signed. Cartoonist Ranga came up with a satirical cartoon on this incidence. 



The cartoon depicting the President saying that “...if there are more ordinances, then tell them to wait” and he is shown busy in having bath. 

What emergency meant? 

The Constitution at that time was such that if Emergency is proclaimed, then all the Fundamental Rights of individuals shall be suspended [3]. It meant, that all the Fundamental Rights, including Article-21, which guaranteed “Right to Life” was suspended. Citizens no longer enjoyed any right to live, any time their life could be taken away from the government, and no citizen was able to go to the courts for the protection of their lives because Article-20 and Article-22 forbid [4] the Courts to consider any such petitions. 
In other words, an All Powerful Leader, who could do whatever she wish to, and there was no one to stop her. This is what happened. All leaders of opposition were sent to jailed except the leaders of Communist Party of India as they were not against Mrs. Gandhi at that time. Power supply to all the newspapers was stopped. Newspapers were allowed to print only what government allowed them to. Forceful and coercive means to control population were adopted. Even those who were unmarried, were arrested and vasectomy was conducted on them. [5] The sixteen point programme of Sanjay Gandhi was being implemented by state governments and there was no control on their powers to implement those. To conclude – democracy had died. 
When all of it was going on, instead of being apologetic to the atrocities, the Congress President D. K. Barua said in a public meeting that “India is Indira and Indira is India” [6]. It was reported in the report of Shah Commission, that police atrocities knew no limits. To add to the despair, if there was anyone who could protect people from the wrath of Mrs. Gandhi, then she was Mrs. Gandhi herself. While in jail, Lal Krishna Advani had written an opinion piece in which he compared to emergencies, which he mentioned in his autobiography, ‘My Country, My Life’ as well. It was something like...

In Germany in 1933, the Chancellor Hitler cited that there is a threat to the internal security, citing that there was an attempt to burn the Reichstag (German Parliament), therefore emergency was proclaimed. A majority was required to amend the constitution and to give all power to Hitler. To do so, all the opposition leaders were jailed. Then a law was passed that no judicial action can be taken on the actions of the Government. There shall be complete censorship of newspapers. A 25-point programme was launched for Germany (not 16-point, as it was in India) and a speech was given by S. Rudolf that, “Hitler is Germany, and Germany is Hitler, who takes oath to Hitler, takes Oath to Germany”. 

If you find it difficult to draw parallels between both the emergencies, then you must be intellectually very lazy. 

Why do we need to remember this today? 

There is a saying that, “those who don’t learn from history, are destined to doomed”. It is important to know how such things unfolded. Also, another important aspect of it, that those who claim legacy of Mrs. Gandhi, have not apologised even today for the actions she had taken. With what face we demand apology of British for the atrocities they did?  

References 
1. Turbulent Years – Pranab Mukherjee; India After Gandhi – Ramchandra Guha
2. Same sources as above. Source – My Country, My Life – L. K. Advani
3. Constitution of India – Durga Das Basu
4. Forbid In the sense that these rights prevent any arbitrary arrest and ensure proper judicial system. But these rights were suspended and therefore no judicial proceedings were required to arrest, detain, or even to kill someone. 
5. Shah Commission Report 
6. Turbulent Years – Pranab Mukherjee

Credits:
Shubham Rajput