Mrs. Gandhi And The 1974 Emergency

09-13-2007, 04:13 AM

QUOTETHIS ABOVE ALL
Looking back at the Emergency
Khushwant Singh
link
EMERGENCY has been declared a dirty word. On its 30th anniversary everyone is waxing eloquent, condemning it as a blot on the face of Indian democracy. Let me jog peopleâs memory about what led to its imposition, how it came to be misused and its aftermath.

Recall the few months preceding the Emergency. The country was slowly but surely sliding into chaos. There were strikes, hartals, gheraos and bandhs on the flimsiest of pretexts. Schools and colleges remained closed for weeks on end; air and train services went haywire. The Opposition, led by Jayaprakash Narayan (a man I admired), decided to cash in on the increasing unrest to topple Mrs Indira Gandhi from power. The mess Sanjay Gandhi had made of his Maruti project (despite Bansi Lal, the Haryana Chief Minister, providing him land) made them easy targets. Then Jayaprakash Narayan called for a bandh of state legislatures and Parliament and exhorted the police and the Army to revolt.

Quite clearly this was going well beyond the limits of protest permitted in a democracy. No one should prevent an elected member of a legislative body from performing his duties. I wrote to Jayaprakashji telling him that this was not done. He replied at great length. I published his letter in full in the journal I was then editing. Not a single Opposition leader raised his voice against JP exceeding the legitimate limits of protest. They just enjoyed Mrs Gandhiâs discomfiture.

The Allahabad High Court judgment depriving her of the right to vote precipitated the crisis. Despite her lawyer Nani Palkhiwala assuring her that he would get the verdict over-ruled (he described it as no more than a minor traffic offence), Mrs Gandhiâs close advisers, led by her son Sanjay and Siddhartha Shankar Ray, advised her to strike the Opposition hard. And so she did by ordering the arrest of all prominent opposition leaders, banning political parties and muzzling the Press. It was danda therapy which yielded results. Take my word for it that when it was first imposed, the people sighed with relief as a semblance normality came back. Schools and colleges started holding classes, shops opened, trains began to run on time. Everyone knew that a call for a strike or bandh would immediately land them in jail. Amongst the many who justified its imposition was Acharya Vinoba Bhave.

There is reason to believe that Mrs Gandhi herself was surprised that there was hardly any resistance to the imposition of Emergency rule: a supine nation had tamely surrendered its democratic rights. It was easy to settle personal scores. Mrs Gandhi set a bad example. She had Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur and Vijaya Raje Scindia of Gwalior locked up for no ostensible reason. Premila Lal and Srilatha Swaminadhan were picked up for doing nothing more than organising farm workers around Mrs Gandhiâs farmhouse. Romesh Thapar, editor of Seminar and a one-time trusted adviser, stopped publishing his journal. Her sleuths did not even spare his sister Romila: her house was searched and she was interrogated for many hours.

She came down hard on The Indian Express â its premises were sealed. Kuldip Nayar was jailed and also his 80-year-old father-in-law Bhim Sain Sachar, former Punjab Chief Minister, and retired Governor. Sanjay had his traducers locked up. His wife Maneka and her mother Amtesh too settled their own scores with people who got in their way. Rukhsana Sultana became a womenâs leader. Mohammed Yunus became a Pathan terror.

Cabinet ministers like V.C. Shukla, Gokhaley and Bansi Lal became petty tyrants. Many civil servants showed extra enthusiasm in carrying out orders of the "royal" family: among them were Jagmohan, Navin Chawla and S. Chand, Lt Governor of Delhi â who later committed suicide. The list of names of those who misused Emergency powers is India-wide. They turned Emergency into a dirty word. There is no truth whatsoever in the statement that the RSS opposed the Emergency. As a matter of fact four Bombay leaders of the RSS asked me to intervene and persuade Mrs Gandhi to lift the ban on them. The only political party which kept up a nominal satyagraha against the Emergency was the Akali Dal.

Wildly exaggerated stories of how Sanjayâs cohorts went about picking up men from cinema houses and bus queues to forcibly sterilise them were circulated. No one has yet prepared a list of those who were in fact sterilised. But the false propaganda yielded handsome dividends. The high-handedness practised by some men and women in power explains Mrs Gandhiâs downfall in the elections that followed. That also explains why a few of years later the people of India voted her and Sanjay back into Parliament and power.

ramana · 09-13-2007, 10:46 AM

We should not forget that this turd Khushwant Singh was a Sanjay Gandhi camp follower till he died.

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 09-13-2007, 03:31 PM by Bodhi.)

one should read "kaidI kavirAya kI kunDaliyAn" of Atal Behari Vajpayee, a memoir in poetry - in traditional Kundali format of poems - sort of a jail-diary which he wrote when he was in jail. He was terribly torchured psychologically and even physically.

RSS was an organization that terrified Indira Gandhi the most. She had banned it, and all its wings including schools and publications. Despite the ban, its weekly papres - Organiser and Panchjanya - continued uninterrupted from undisclosed locations, to the embarrassment of all the police and intelligence. As a token of defiance, not only were the papers published, but were diligently delivered to PMO table by RSS swayamsevaks every week.

During emergency, RSS gained a sort of terrifying-cum-admired perception in eyes of politicians across the spectrum. It was not any accident that after Janata Party came to power, non-Jana Sangha fractions were afraid of RSS's presence and influence on government - a fear that ultimately led to the break down of Janata Party and govt.

Subramanyam Swami was another name that gained public admiration. The lone MP that succesfully voted against the emergency bill in the parliament, disappeared unurrested, to an exile in London, from where he continued to deliver speeches beamed into Indian radios by BBC.

Others that gained public admiration during this time were George Fernandese and LK Advani.

09-13-2007, 06:04 PM

QUOTEOthers that gained public admiration during this time were George Fernandese and LK Advani.
Others I can think are Ramanath Goenka and Arun Shourie who ran Indian Express despite harrassment from govt agencies. I believe they even opposed the censorship and ran some blank pages/sections of as mark of protest against censorship. Now IE's run by some bald beady eyed stooge, sad.

Ambika Soni listed by Mudy seemed to know which side of the bread was buttered and was in hit herself. Few weeks ago I had read of how Prathiba Patil (our current President for those who might not know) breaking ranks with her own mentor Y B Chavan and supported Emergency. She even went as far as advocating sterlization for mentally handicapped - or something along the lines (details should be in the Presidential elections thread).
Another name that comes to mind is V C Shukla who was Sanjay's man-friday at that time.
Where are all these people now?

Might not be a bad idea of listing the heros and villians of the Emergency.

09-13-2007, 08:53 PM

My two uncles who were Doctors, arrested under Misa. One died in jail after prolonged torture and denial of medication. They did not allow my other uncle to attend his younger brother cremation.

I was young, but very well remember that once they have to close our school after rumor that Sanjay Gandhi is coming in truck to give Nasbandi injection on palm to all school kids.

Life in Babu residential area was not good either.
I was told not to talk, what we are discussing at home. No information about who is coming to home or who is staying at home.
Some babus were doing nasty spying job to settle scores with other. Environment was very nasty.
I can recall, whenever we received letter by underline on some contents, it used to create lot of activity inside home. <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

09-13-2007, 09:02 PM

QUOTEV C Shukla 
I think died recently, three years back saw him on plane.

09-28-2007, 09:55 AM

03-24-2008, 03:03 PM

QUOTELink

JUSTICE SINHA, WHO SET ASIDE INDIRA'S ELECTION IS NO MORE

Allahabad, Mar. 23- Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha, who had set aside
the election of Indira Gandhi from Rae Bareli in 1975 â a judgment
which set off a chain of events that changed Indian polity forever â
died at his Allahabad home on Thursday evening.

Justice Sinha (87), died due to age-related problems. His body was
cremated at Rasoolabad Ghat on the banks of Ganga in Allahabad on
Friday.

Justice Sinha is survived by his wife and three sons. The legal
fraternity mourned the death of the man, who, as one of them said,
was âknown for his courageous voice of dissent against all that
defines illegality.â

Said Justice Ravi Dhawan, a former Chief Justice of Patna High Court,
who had a long association with Justice Sinha: âHe said his final
adieu to the world last night, but he will have a permament place in
the pages of Indian judicial historyâ.

It wasnât one of those usual tributes from one judge to another. For,
Justice Sinha is the only judge in the history of the country and
perhaps among the very few in the world, who set aside the election
of a Prime Minister for using corrupt practices in an election.

Angry Indira

Angered by Justice Sinhaâs judgement, Indira Gandhi retaliated by
imposing a internal Emergency on June 25, 1975, suspended Fundamental
Rights, arrested Opposition leaders and imposed censorship on
news-papers. There were no TV news channels those days.

In the elections held after the Emergency in 1980, the Cong-ress was
roundly defeated. Even Indira Gandhi and her younger son Sanjay â who
was believed to be the brain behind the Emergency â lost and, for the
first time, a non-Congress government was formed at the Centre.

Justice R.B. Mehrotra, a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court,
who had watched the proceedings in the historic case of Raj Narain
versus Indira Nehru Gandhi as a young advocate, remembers Justice
Sinha conducting the proceedings with calm and appropriate dignity.

Human chain

He recalled that the day before Indira Gandhi was to appear in his
court, Justice Sinha ordered that no policemen, even on security
duty, would be allowed inside the court premises. In an incident
without any parallel, the security of a Prime Minister was managed by
lawyers of the High Court who formed a human chain when Indira Gandhi
came to the court.

Justice Mehrotra said that Justice Sinha asked the Registrar to take
all steps to maintain the sanctity and dignity of the court in spite
of the presence of the Prime Minister. So, while it was ensured that
Indira Gandhi had an appropriate seat, it was lower than the judgeâs
dais. However, her chair was a little higher than the seats of the
lawyers.

It was also strictly ensured that no lawyer or official inside the
court would stand up when she arrived; that honour was rightfully
reserved only for the judge who would arrive a little later, recalled
Justice Mehrotra.

Daughter-in- law recalls

Justice Sinhaâs elder daughter-in- law Vibha says he took the famous
case as another routine case. When he returned home after setting
aside the election of Indira Gandhi on June 12, 1975, it was like any
other day; it did not look as if he had delivered a very important
judgment against the Prime Minister.

Justice Sinha retired in 1982. He spent his time reading and
gardening. Essentially apolitical, Justice Sinha was an anguished man
in later years over certain disturbing trends in the countryâs
politics, said his other dauther-in-law Poonam Sinha.

03-24-2008, 07:22 PM

My condolences to Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha's family.

Thank you Sinhaji for doing the right thing and protecting the democratic values of our country and fighting corrupt persons.

ramana · 06-26-2009, 12:45 AM

From Deccan Chronicle, 25 June 2009

QUOTEEmergency: The mystery of the missing opposition

June 26th, 2009

By JagmohanÂ Â

The emergency (June 1975-January 1977) was a tragedy. Its imposition led to a number of unjustified arrests and caused other aberrations. But there are quite a few pertinent questions connected with it as well as with the post-Emergency period (January 1977 to December 1979) that have not been pondered over in depth. One such set of questions pertains to the general health of the Indian society in these two periods.

Was it Indira Gandhi or her son Sanjay Gandhi or their few advisors who alone were responsible for the imposition of Emergency and all that happened during it? What about the judges who, despite their high status, not only held that the declaration of Emergency was valid but also refused to safeguard even elementary liberties, the denial of which reduced the individual citizen to a âstate of utter rightlessnessâ? What about the pressman who started crawling, when they were asked only to bend? What about both the Houses of Parliament which endorsed the Emergency by an overwhelming majority â 336 to 39 in Lok Sabha and 136 to 33 in Rajya Sabha? And what about the people themselves, who just âmelted awayâ as soon as Emergency was declared? Noting the absence of âangry voicesâ, the Guardian, London, observed: âIndiaâs State of Emergency is almost three months old now, and rapidly becoming the Mystery of the Missing Oppositionâ.

Clearly, there was something wrong with the moral fibre of the nation. That is why even after the end of the Emergency and ouster of Indira Gandhi from power, the fundamental maladies continued; they merely assumed a different form, colour and direction. The post-Emergency period (January 1977-December 1979) saw its own type of excesses and its own type of infirmities in our polity, administration and character of the people.

There was a spate of inquiry commissions and committees â as many as 52. These agencies were set up with the main objective of painting everything that happened during the Emergency as black and put the blame on Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and the handful of supporters they were left with. The officers and erstwhile political colleagues of the Gandhis were subjected to subtle pressure and made to say before these commissions and committees that whatever wrong they did was done at the behest of Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and their âcoterieâ, no matter what the written records indicated. Most of them, in fact, were themselves inclined to follow the dictum: âLet us lay all the evils on the Friar and rid ourselves of them allâ.

The depth to which the overall character of the nation and its value-system had gone down, over the years, could be gauged by the manner in which the Shah Commission functioned.

Partisan case summaries were prepared by the commissionâs staff by doctoring documents and isolating facts from their context. These summaries were highlighted on television, radio and in the newspapers. Yet they were given to the persons concerned only at the time of commencement of the proceedings. The intention was to surprise, confuse and pressurise witnesses and extract incriminating material. In the examination of witnesses, a pre-designed pattern was followed. Those who said anything to denigrate the Emergency-administration were encouraged, humoured, even applauded. These obliging witnesses were not stopped by the commission even when their statements clearly contradicted the written records. On the other hand, those who tried to defend their actions were jeered, taunted and insulted.

To expose the false propaganda about the âdemolitionsâ, I submitted a comprehensive statement to the Shah Commission explaining how the project was really one of clearance-cum-resettlement-cum-redevelopment, how immensely it benefited the poor squatters and slum dwellers and how it had been in operation even before the Emergency, with the approval of the Central government and Parliament. During the course of the proceedings, I wanted to read my statement. But Justice Shah would not allow it.

Noticing the highly tendentious reports in the press and on television, I published the facts contained in the aforesaid written statements and oral submissions in my book, titled Island of Truth. This book was filed as an affidavit by me in the special court of Justice M.L. Jain and no one dared to file a counter-affidavit.

Subtle hints were given to me that I should become a sort of âapproverâ and pass on the âblameâ to others. Was clearance of some of the most inhuman slums or allotment of 1,000 hectares of developed land with a market value of about Rs 2,000 crores, or disbursement of about Rs 9 crores of loan at only four per cent rate of interest, or the creation of stable and development-oriented avenues of employment, preservation of historical legacy, or general upgradation of environment of the city an âexcessâ for which one should feel ashamed?

The resettlers gratefully acknowledged what was done for them. In the elections to the Delhi Metropolitan Council and Municipal Corporation, held soon after the general elections of March 1977, these resettlers, as would be evident from election office documents, voted overwhelmingly for Indira Gandhi. At that time, Indira Gandhiâs party lost in almost all the constituencies except those that covered the resettlement colonies.

The excesses committed by the Shah Commission stood thoroughly exposed by the judgment of the Delhi high court, delivered on December 19, 1979, by Justice T.P.S. Chawla. The commissionâs findings were declared illegal and unconstitutional. The court, inter alia, observed: âIn my opinion, J.C. Shah acted in violation of the Constitutionâ¦ If I may adapt the phrase used by Mr Justice Douglas, by doing so, the Commission abused its authorityâ.

Apart from the mutilation of history and truth, the basic question that arises out of the analysis of the events, in the Emergency as well as in the post-Emergency period, is: How can there be a good state and healthy nation in a set-up which has a big crop of politicians, bureaucrats, parliamentarians, judges and pressmen of the type witnessed during the aforesaid two periods? Great nations are built by people with character and commitment, and not by those who have convenient conscience and consider discretion to be the better part of valour.

* Jagmohan is a former governor of J&K and a former Union minister. During the Emergency he had served as vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority and had subsequently testified before the Shah Commission.


To me the lesson is how the Shah Commission due to its vindictive agenda instead of uncovering the truth hid the real perpetrators (the bureaucrats) and continued the malaise. A similar dog and pony show is going in the BJP election results analsyis.

06-29-2009, 01:36 PM

Can anyone answer following questions

1. Is six year disqualification the ONLY punishment in Representation of People's Act?

2. What were the exact crimes that Indira Amma had committed that made HCj Sinha impose six year disqualification as the punishment?

---

Americans were upset with Indira Amma dividing Pak into 2 pieces. They were more upset with Indira Amma improving Indian Military and doing Nuke Tests. And USSR too did not like the nuke tests. The Kudal Commission report which came in 1987 proved that many NGOs received huge funds from US during 1972-76. I am not saying that JP or HCj Sinha got any money from CIA. I am only asking for the LIST of crimes Indira Amma committed.

.

Bodhi · 06-29-2009, 07:33 PM

Emergency remains a mystery and there are many things which we don't really know about it. Why did Indira Gandhi become desperate despite a very popular support behind her, especially in less than 5 years after the massive 1971 victory over Pakistan, the 1974 Nuke test, etc?

06-29-2009, 08:29 PM

Rahul, here's a background on The Emergency from Wikipedia.

06-30-2009, 09:42 AM

QUOTE(Bodhi @ Jun 29 2009, 07:33 PM)Emergency remains a mystery and there are many things which we don't really know about it.Â Why did Indira Gandhi become desperate despite a very popular support behind her, especially in less than 5 years after the massive 1971 victory over Pakistan, the 1974 Nuke test, etc?
[right][snapback]99256[/snapback][/right]


My guess is : because of massive foreign fundings coming to some NGOs and may be many IAS, judges, these organizations were able to create so many strikes and public disorder that administration paralyzed. The citizens were support India Amma, but many people in Administration were anti-Amma because of the popularity she was gaining and she was dislodging established oldies and replacing them by younger and more efficient people.

Indira Amma is a misfortune case that despite public support, judge because some handful of activists and organizations take nation on a ride, the PM had to resort to dictatorial ways. And then due to her dictatorial ways during 1975-77, she lost some public support.

The question is : any leader who tries to strengthen Indian nuclear arsenal and Military in future will face a situation, where in US will give funds to organizations to disrupt India. Any leader who wants to strengthen Indian Military will have to first devise ways by which India can be made "NGO proof" i.e. handful of NGOs cant disrupt India against public will.

Capt M Kumar · 06-30-2009, 12:40 PM

<!--emo&

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /> Well, it had been the loss of high court case which was won by Raj Narain making her election as null and void and I think, she was also disqualified to contest elections for another 5 yrs. At the same time, once emergency was declared, JP organised an All india movement starting from Gujrat.

Login




Remember me Lost Password?