Re: [India_Vision_2020] On this day 37 years back, Indian democracy came to a grinding halt - Saluting the heroes who restored democracy

Dear Mr. Srinivasan,,

Your brief write-up on the eve of completion of 37 years of Declaring
emergency is read with interest and concern.. You have brought in
brief the chronicles of the events that took place during the dark of
emergency era. After all nation should draw its lessons from the
history. That way the black days of the days and the sufvferings of
nationalists who underwent incarceration for no fault of their are not
to be forgotten in the annals of history. Because they are blot on
our well cherished democratic institutions.

Kudos to your nationalistic spirit.

With regards,

N. Jagannathan

2012/6/25, jp.sangamam@gmail.com <jp.sangamam@gmail.com>:
> Detailed report about Emergency must know youngsters. Thank you sreenivasan
> sir.
> Jp
> Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.com>
> Sender: India_Vision_2020@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:09:41
> To: Prpoint Group<prpoint@yahoogroups.com>; India Vision
> group<India_Vision_2020@yahoogroups.com>;
> <indian-pr-forum@googlegroups.com>; <gfpr@googlegroups.com>; New Media New
> Media Forum<new_media_forum@yahoogroups.com>
> Reply-To: India_Vision_2020@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [India_Vision_2020] On this day 37 years back, Indian democracy
> came to a grinding halt -
> Saluting the heroes who restored democracy
>
> hi all
>
> *Internal Emergency declared *
>
> 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:
>
> "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."
>
> 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.
>
> I*ndira 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.
>
> http://www.poduniversal.com/2010/12/shah-commission-report-on-emergency.html
>
> *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
>
>


--
N. Jaganathan


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