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Internal Emergency declared
"In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 352 of the Constitution, I, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, President of India, by this Proclamation declare that a grave emergency exists whereby the security of India is threatened by internal disturbances."
After independence, India has faced several challenges and every time, it has overcome with courage and conviction. India got the freedom from British in the midnight of 14/15th August 1947. The same freedom and democracy was put to a 'grinding halt' in the midnight of 25/26 June 1975.
In the midnight of that day, President Fakruddin Ali Ahamed, issued a proclamation on the advice of then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, as follows:
By this historic proclamation, the freedom enjoyed by the citizens of India was removed. Immediately within few hours, all the national leaders like Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan, Kripalani, George Fernandes, Chandrasekhar, Vajpayee, L K Advani, Charan Singh and many others were arrested in the midnight and put behind the bars.
Since there is not much of the records of the darker days, the present generation has been successfully prevented from knowing the dark side of the Indian history.
Background leading to Emergency
Indira Gandhi and Raj Narain fought the Lok Sabha Election from Rae Bareli Constituency in 1971. Indira Gandhi was declared elected. Raj Narain filed an election petition in the Allahabad High Court, alleging that Indira Gandhi committed election fraud by misusing the Government machinery. Shanthi Bhushan, the noted advocated argued for Raj Narain. On 12th June 1975, Allahabad High Court declared Indira Gandhi's victory as null and void and also banned her from contesting elections for six years. This sent shock waves. Even Supreme Court refused to stay this order.
The opposition leaders like Jayaprakash Narain and others demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister. There were lot of protests against Indira Gandhi at that time.
Declaring Emergency
With this background,on the suggestions of Siddhartha Sankar Ray, then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Indira Gandhi advised the President of India to declare internal emergency in India.
Nearly 1,40,000 leaders were arrested during this period. Of this, around 40,000 were from Sikh community. Sycophants surrounded Indira Gandhi. Many excesses were committed. Sterlizations were done forcibly. Huts were removed through police. Many officers were 'more loyal to the kingdom than the king himself'. India Gandhi's son Sanjay Gandhi was accused of all the excesses. (Now Sanjay Gandhi's wife Menaka and son Varun are in BJP).
Courts did not have powers. There was acute press censorship. Only Doordarshan and All India Radio were giving out Government based news. Print Media had to show their news item to the Censor Officer in all the Regions to get approval. Hence, the people were not getting correct information. Only handful of papers showed courage at that time. We have to appreciate the courage shown by Indian Express and Thuglak (Cho Ramaswamy) at that time, to fight against the emergency.
When the papers were asked to bow down, many of the national papers started crawling. Historically, the so called 'big brands' of today, have crawled in those emergency days, to save their skin. Ramnath Goenka (Indian Express) and Cho Ramaswamy (Thuglak) deserve all appreciations. In spite of all the harassments given to them, they showed courage.
Dr Subramaniam Swamy was a Member of Parliament then. The Government wanted to arrest him. Every time, he used to show his head in Parliament and within few hours he would surface in some other foreign country. He was giving a tough fight against the emergency.
Rashtriya Suyam Sevak Sangh (RSS) was banned. Their leaders were arrested. Many of them went underground. They were working against emergency in disguise. Even many of the Communist leaders were arrested.
Elections declared
On 23rd Jan 1977, Indira Gandhi announced elections to the Lok Sabha. Emergency was lifted on 23rd March 1977, after 21 months. After the declaration of elections, all the leaders were released from jail.
When the leaders came out, they did not have money or organisational structure. the workers were also in prison. Four major political parties Congress (O), Bharatiya Jan Sangh, Bharatiya Lok Dal and Socialist party were merged to form 'Janata Party'.
In the General Elections, Janata Party and its allies swept the polls by getting 330 seats out of 542 in the Lok Sabha. Indira Gandhi could win only in 154 seats, that too in the four states of South India. In the North India, Indira Gandhi got only 2 seats. Both Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi were defeated. Indira Gandhi apologized for the emergency excesses and atrocities.
Appointment of Shah Commission by Janata Government
Janata Party formed the Government under the Prime Ministership of Morarji Desai. They appointed a Commission under the Chairmanship of Justice Shah to enquire into the atrocities and excess committed during the Emergency period. Justice Shah also submitted his report in August 1978.
Very unfortunately, the Janata Government could not continue for long, due to the internal differences of the leaders. Thereafter, the Janata Party also got split into various parties, like Janata Dal, BJP, Samajvadi Party, etc. Presently, Dr Subramaniam Swamy is the lone leader who is remaining in the original Janata Party.
Indira back to power
Indira Gandhi came back to power in 1980. After her coming back to power, all the copies of Shah Commission Report were removed from the libraries, including from the Parliament and National libraries. Not even one single copy of the report was available after that time.
Shah Commission Report re-published
The entire 21 months dark period of Indian democracy was burried under carpet. Mr Era Sezhiyan, a well known Parliamentarian and a Member of Parliament at that time of Emergency had one copy of the Shah Commission Report in his library. He is now 90. Now the report has been reprinted and published. I have taken an interview with Mr Sezhiyan about the Shah Commission Report.
Forgotten history and heroes
The martyrs have been forgotten in the history. Attempts were made to erase this part of the history. Because of the ignorance of this great struggle, even Anna Hazare team calls their movement as 'second freedom movement'. Calling Anna Hazare movement as second freedom struggle will amount to belittling the sacrifices made by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan and other great leaders. More than 1,40,000 leaders spent their time in prison during emergency days.
Let us salute those UnSung Heros who fought to restore the democracy back to India.
Srinivasan
Prime Point
9176650273
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Please visit the website http://www.indiavision2020.org to read inspiring articles of eminent personalities
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