"Dark Days: Reflecting on the Emergency in India"
Emergency 1975 - The story of story self-entitlement and political corruption of Indian National Congress
Yesterday entire opposition led by Smt Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi was raising the slogans outside Parliament house: "SANVIDHAN KI RAKSHA KUAN KAREGA HAM KARENGE HAM KARENGE" Let's revisit the days when Constitution was reduced to an afterthought by Nehruvian dynasts and their cronies!!
1. The Reason
The President has proclaimed Emergency. There is nothing to panic about. - Indira Gandhi These words were spoken by Indira Gandhi in the crack of the dawn of 26th June 1975, what ensued was a blot on the fabric of Indian democracy. The declaration of emergency came as a surprise to the country, even the cabinet ministers were informed about it one night prior and no one else had expected such move, opposition to this was curbed by brutal forces controlled by Indira Gandhi for a period of 21 months (June 1975-March 1977), in which she ruled with an iron fist.
Reasons for Imposing Emergency (According to Indira Gandhi):
1. She believed that the security of the nation and democracy was in danger due to the movement launched by Jayaprakash Narayan, A hero of the freedom struggle.
2. She was of the opinion that the economic development of the country had stagnated and required a radical change to uplift the underprivileged who were suffering due to the slow pace of development. 3. She was of the firm belief that there could be a threat to India's internal security due to the intervention of foreign powers which would try to destabilize and weaken India.
2. The Reality
The months preceding the emergency was a pitiful period for India’s development, riddled with growing unemployment, rampant inflation, and scarcity of food. The dismal condition of the Indian economy was accompanied by widespread riots and protests in several parts of the country. Between 1970 and 1975 Inflation reached 28%. India's gross domestic product(GDP) in 1975 was $98.47 billion, an increase of -1.06% over 1974, and GDP accounted for 1.6473% of the world economy in 1975, India's GDP ranked 13th in the world, 3rd in Asian countries. FDI in India was almost 1.4 Billion Dollars. All this was coupled with utter poverty spread across the India with more than 70% of population living in penury. The terrible drought in East India in the mid-1960s setback India’s development and aggravated poverty. It led to the country’s greater dependence on the western powers for aid. There was massive import of food and also one of the biggest devaluations of the currency in 1966 from Rs 4.76 to Rs 7.5 to a dollar. India faced issues at its borders with wars in 1962 and 1965 and this led to a rapid increase in defence expenditures and massive import of arms which dented the fight against poverty. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act was enacted to check the growth of the monopolies which was a result of crony capitalism indulged in by Indian Big Business. From the late 1960s, economic regulations were tightened. The MRTP Act of 1969, nationalization of 14 large commercial banks, the same year the Patent Act of 1970, the Industrial Licensing Policy of 1970, and the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) of 1973 are given as famous examples. The black economy too continued to grow. From an estimate of 4-5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1955-56, it grew to 7% by 1970 as per the Wanchoo Committee Report. This led to growing policy failure and also the discrediting of government intervention in the economy since public services suffered. Crony capitalism flourished in this period enabling strong monopolies and oligopolies to flourish in the economy with political protection. This was concluded by the Hazari Committee Report in 1969. To industrialise more quickly, resources were needed and the highest marginal tax rate reached 97.5% in 1971 when Mrs Gandhi was the finance minister. The attempt was not only to collect resources but also cut luxury consumption. White goods remained in short supply and there was a waiting period to buy them which led to their black marketing; there was a premium on getting a two-wheeler or a telephone. In spite of the high tax rates, resources remained short. In 1974-75 Several changes were made into the income tax rates. Below mentioned are some highlighted ones:
1. The maximum Income tax rate was lowered to 75% from 97.75%
2. Taxes were reduced at all slabs of income tax. This was done by Y. B. Chavan
3. There was no income tax for individuals who earned up to ₹6,000.
4. The basic rate of income tax was maintained on the income slab at over 70,000 rupees to 70%.
5. The surtax rate was reduced to 10% for all levels.
6. The joint impact of income tax and premium would be 77% of taxable income in the highest slab. Wealth tax was increased. In nutshell license Raj destroyed India's economy and crony capitalism along with Congress Kleptocracy was at its peak.
3. The result
Navnirman Andolan in Gujarat The students of LD college of engineering started to protest against the hike in tuition fees in December 1973. A month later, students of Gujarat University joined the protest and called for the dismissal of the corrupt state government. It called itself the ‘Navnirman movement’. Gujarat was governed by the Congress under chief minister Chimanbhai Patel. The government was notorious for its corruption, and its head popularly referred to as chiman chor!! The student-led protests against the government gained momentum and soon factory workers and people from all walks of life joined in. Clashes with the police, burning of buses and government offices and attacks on ration shops became an everyday occurrence. By February 1974, the central government was forced to act upon the protest. It suspended the Assembly and imposed President’s rule upon the state.
The Bihar movement/JP movement
The success of the Gujarat protest inspired the students in Bihar to oppose the failed regressive machinery of the Bihar government and they started their protest by March 1974, this movement soon gained momentum and now was led by the 71-year-old freedom fighter Shri Jayaprakash Narayan (JP). JP toured across North India actively motivating various sections of society to unite against the regressive Congress regime and force them to resign, this movement became a major obstacle for Indira Gandhi government. There were a large number of clashes with the police, courts, and offices, schools and colleges were being shut down. As the movement progressed, It gained momentum and support from all the opposition units. Indira Gandhi criticized the movement calling it extra-parliamentary and openly challenged Jayaprakash Narayan to face her in the 1976 Lok Sabha elections, JP accepted but the challenge couldn't happen as the emergency was imposed before the elections and democracy was suspended.
4. The Landmark Judgement
The biggest reason behind Indira Gandhi's imposition of Emergency was Rajnarayan. After losing 1971's Lok Sabha Elections to Indira Gandhi in Raebareli, Rajnarayan filed a case against her saying that she won the election using some unethical ways. 4 years later, on 12 June 1975, the Allahabad High Court ruled on this case, which was in favor of Rajnarayan. The court convicted Indira Gandhi on 14 charges including bribing voters, misusing government machinery, misusing government resources. The High Court disqualified Indira Gandhi to hold office and contest elections for the next 6 years. Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad high court was to deliver the judgement on the 12th of June 1975. Everybody waited nervously yet patiently waited for the decision to be declared. Efforts to sway the judge to Indira Gandhi’s were persistent. A member of parliament of Indira Gandhi’s home state had casually menoned to Sinha whether he would be happy with Rs. 500,000. He did not respond. Another time, a colleague on the told him that he was to be elevated to the Supreme court after “the judgement”. Sinha simply stared at him with a look of contempt. He could not be tempted or would nit submit to thepressure. Their eorts to delay the judgement also failed. JointSecretary Prem Prakash Nayyar in the Home Ministry, met with theChief jusce of Uar Pradesh high court and suggested that perhapsthe decision could be deferred ll the Prime Minister completed herplanned tour of some foreign countries as an unfavourable judgement would be embarrassing. This request was passed on to Sinha, who got so annoyed that he immediately rang up the court registrar and asked him announce 12th June as the day of judgement. Finally on the day of verdict Sinha came with his258-page judgment and announced “The peon has been allowed". There was a moment of silence and then a burst of clapping. The media had a eld day, newspapermen running to thee telephones and intelligence ocers to their oces. Mrs. Gandhi, who received the news from her son Rajiv Gandhi took the news without show of much emoon. What seemed to rue her was the news that she would not be able to hold any elecve post for the next six years. Justice Sinha held Gandhi guilty of two practices in theelecons which are as follows:- The first was that she had used Yashpal Kapoor, officer on special duty to “further her election prospect”. As a government servant he should not have been put to use. Kapoor had begun eleconeering for Mrs Gandhi on the 7th of January 1971 and given his resignaon on 13th of January and he continued his service till 25th January. The second impropriety was that Indira Gandhi had obtained the assistance of UP govt. officials to build rostrums from which she addressed the rallies. The officials also arranged for loudspeakers and electricity to feed them. Interestingly Advocate Shahsi Bhushan father of present BJP bête noire Prashant Bhushan represented Raj Narayan Singh in Allahabad high court against Indira Gandhi!!
Pic 1 - Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha
Pic 3 - Raj Narayan Singh with Advocate Shashi Bhushan
Pic 4 - A copy of Judgement
5. The Drama of the Blue Book
The case of Indira Gandhi vs. Raj Narain and Anr. was based on straight accusation of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi to be guilty of electoral malpractices. Raj Narain was contesting elections against Indira Gandhi in the constituency of Rai Bareily in 1971 Lok Sabha. Raj Narain contended extravagantly, so much so that he even celebrated before the polling results were out. This sense of confidence turned into a state of shock when he heard of how Mrs. Gandhi was re-elected and Congress won with a sweeping majority. So post-results Raj Narain moved Allahabad High Court and filed a petition for thorough investigation as he accused her of electoral malpractices like- • Bribery • Usage of government machinery and utilization of state resources. • Specifically even about how Gandhi used government employees for her campaigning. • He even accused Gandhi of procuring assistance of armed forces for arranging her flights by Air Force. • Her election agent, Yashpal Kapoor and others distributed clothes and liquors, they also appealed to religious symbols of cow and calf. • They even used government vehicles in order to help voters to get to their polling stations. • They exceeded the ‘acceptable budget’ in order to contest elections. In order to prove these allegations, he even called the state govt. of Uttar Pradesh to produce the ‘Blue Book’ – the Blue Book was requested to to be produced in order to understand the security guidelines for protection of Prime Minister while travelling. Responding to this the Home Security of Uttar Pradesh claimed ‘non disclosure privilege’ under Sec.123 of Evidence Act. Although there was no submission of an affidavit from the other party’s side.
6. Congress changed Constitutuion to protect itself!!
Judgement of the High Court So, the High Court ruled in favor of Raj Narain because the disclosure of the Blue Book could only be prohibited if it was against public interest. The High Court validated all the accusations and charged Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices under Sec. 123 (7) of Representatives of People’s Act. Aggrieved by the High Court’s decision, Gandhi appealed to the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court then being on vacation granted a conditional stay on the matter on 24th June 1975. Indira Gandhi was allowed to act as a Prime Minister but was restricted from voting in the Parliament. While granting the conditional stay, Supreme Court ordered the parties to appear before it on 11 August, 1975. Interestingly, President Fakhrudden Ali declared a state of ‘emergency’ due to ‘internal disturbances’ now even a common man could interpret why such ‘turn of events’ took place. Following the declaration of emergency, on 10th August 1975, Parliament passed 39th Constitutional Amendment Act by virtue of which the Courts were now restricted from trying the election disputes of President, Prime Minister, Vice President and Speaker of Lok Sabha , rather a committee formed by Parliament would review such matters. This Amendment Act also put three Acts in the Ninth Schedule-
1) Representation of People Amendment Act, 43 of 1951.
2) Representation of People Amendment Act, 58 of 1974.
3) Election Laws Amendment Act. Raj Narain challenged the constitutionality of 39th Amendment Act and of the first two abovementioned acts on the basis of ‘Doctrine of Basic Structure’ given in the Kesavanand Bharti Case.
Judgement
Justice Matthews who originally did not share the view of majority in Kesavanda Bharti stated in this case that “ I proceed with on the assumption that the law as laid down by majority in Fundamental Rights case should govern the decision here, although I did not share the view of majority.” About the Blue Book he also noted that privilege existed with respect to government document and right to waive such privilege.
Court was obligated to examine reasons submitted in the affidavit and it could not decide on such matter without complete inquiry. Further more, the Court struck down the Amendment on the grounds that it violated the Basic Structure of Constitution.
7. The Emergency
As the news spread the distraught cabinet ministers kept pouring in at the Prime Ministers residence. The congregaon of ministers contemplated upon what to do next. She knew she had no otheropon but to resign. Someone suggested that they should appeal to the Supreme court, but that would take me. Their only respite was in the fact that the judgement had a clear stay for twenty days. Her sons were vehemently against her resignaon, even temporarily. Soon aafer, Indira and her allies set on the mission of negang whatever the judge said and show that she was the true leader of the people. To muster public support rallies were organized, crowds were amassed in front of 1 Safdarjung road. Neighboring states like- Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP were also ordered to organize rallies. Mrs. Gandhi made it known that she was not going to step down because of the ‘faith of the people in her” and would connue to work toward eradicaon of poverty!! Mrs. Gandhi failed to get her laws passed as the Court didn't used to take her side. But after a while, the demands for her to quit became stronger. Agitaons were increasing. She was not afraid of the opposion but more so of her own party seething with discontentment. The opposion were united and there was a threat to Congress from within. Mrs. Gandhi realized that the atmosphere was growing hosle and she would have to take drastic measures soon. Sanjay Gandhi and a few of his close aides weresecretly plong a scheme to retain Indira Gandhi’s posion. His group was now putting into operation the mechanics of their plan. Sidhartha Ray spelled it out for them. He told Mrs Gandhi that the“only way” to do something was to declare “internal emergency “.She was told that this provision would give the government blanket power in case of any disturbances. Mrs Gandhi was greatly relieved and thought that she would be acting under the constitution in declaring emergency!! As the Congress was losing ground day by day West Bengal CM Siddharth Shankar Ray advised Indira to declare emergency and continue to stay in power. List of leaders to be arrested had already beenmade, order of censorship to the press had already been issued. On the night of 25 the June Mrs. Gandhi and her trusted companion Sidartha Ray drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan to get the Presidents assent on passing the Emergency. It nearly took forty-five minutes to explain the President what the emergency would entail, being a lawyer himself, he quickly understood the implicaons. And 11:45pm just fifteen minutes before the deadline the president signed theproclamaon of a state of emergency. It authorized the government to put censorship on press, suspend court proceedings regarding the enforcements of civil rights and so on.
8. The Constitution and The emergency
Types of Emergency in Indian Constitution- The Constitution of India empowers the President to declare three types of emergencies: National Emergency under Article 352 State Emergency (President's Rule) under 356 Financial Emergency under Article 360.
1. National Emergency- Under Article 352 of the Constitution, if the President feels that a serious situation has arisen in the country like war, external aggression or armed rebellion, and now the reason is to threaten the security of the country or any region, then such a situation in the country There is a proposal to declare a national emergency.
2. State Emergency (President's Rule)- Under Article 356 of the Constitution, when the President feels that the State Government is unable to act in accordance with the constitutional provisions, in such a situation the Central Government can take direct control of the state machinery and declare President's rule here. The presidential rule was first imposed in June 1951 in Punjab. Since then, it has been imposed 115 times to date.
a. President’s rule was imposed in 12 states in 1977. b. President’s rule was imposed 63 times in 20 years between 1971 and 1990. c. Between 1991 and 2010, it was applied 27 times. Only in 1991 and 1992 it was used 9 times. d. The uncritical use of Article 356 came down to a greater extent after the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in the S R Bommai case in 1994. e. Then, between 2011 and 2016, it was used 5 times, including 3 times after the BJP came to power in 2014 in Maharashtra, J & K, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
3. Financial emergency- Under Article 370 of the Constitution, if the President feels that the financial stability of the country or any region of the country is threatened, then in such a situation a financial emergency can be declared. Note- This type of emergency has never been enforced in the country till date. The reference to emergency in India is taken from 19 months between 1975 and 1977, in which emergency was imposed by the then President. On 25 June 1975, the then President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, declared a national emergency in the country under Article 352 of the Constitution at the behest of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This emergency was lifted on 21 March 1977. The 19 months between this emergency period are still counted in the dark days of the history of independent India. This was the most controversial and undemocratic period in the history of independent India. Emergency 1: 1962 The first Emergency was declared by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 26th October 1962, when the Indo-China War broke out. Even though a ceasefire was declared less than a month later, Nehru did not revoke the Emergency. The first Emergency was still in force when the Indo-Pak War broke out in 1965. Although hostilities ended with the Tashkent Agreement being signed on 11th January 1966, the Emergency was lifted only on 10th January 1968.
Emergency 2: 1971 The second Emergency was declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 3rd December 1971, when the Bangladesh Liberation War broke out. Although the hostilities ended within two weeks, on 17th December, the state of Emergency was not revoked.
Emergency 3: 1975 With the second Emergency still in force, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared India's third Emergency on 25th June 1975. Her election in 1971 had been challenged in court and the tide seemed to be turning against her. The previous day, on 24th June, the Supreme Court had given her a reprieve but if she lost the case, she would have to step down as Prime Minister.
9. The Case "Turkman Gate"
By 2:30 or 3:00 AM leader of the opposionlike JP, Morarji and hundreds of others were rudely woken up and arrested, everything was going according to her plan. They were being detained under MISA. Next day, newspapers did not come out as their power had been cut, the only two papers that came out were The Statesman and The Hindustan Times in New Delhi because the did not receive electricity from Delhi Municipal Corporaon but from the New Delhi Municipality, which had already received orders to blackout the presses. Freedom of the press was described by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as one of the “four pillars of democracy”. But free speech in every form was heavily curtailed during the Emergency. Within hours of thedeclaraon of the President’s Rule on the night of June 25, 1975, electric supply to all major newspapers was cut o. But that was just the beginning. Censorship was at its peak for the months to come and everypublicaon, regional and naonal, was forced to praise the government and stay away from cricism.While many mainstream newspapers like The Indian Express and several other underground publicaons connued to defy Indira Gandhi, the government took every possible step to make their life hell. Delhi served as the epicenter of Sanjay Gandhi's "urban renewal" program, aided in large part by DDA vice-president Jagmohan Malhotra who himself had a desire to "beautify" the city. During the emergency Jagmohan emerged as the single most powerful person in the DDA, and went to extraordinary lengths to do the bidding of Sanjay Gandhi, as the Shah commission notes: Shri Jagmohan during the emergency, became a law unto himself and went about doing the biddings of Shri Sanjay Gandhi without care or concern for the miseries of the people affected thereby. In total, 700,000 people in Delhi were displaced due to the demolitions carried out in Delhi. Below in pic 2 we can see how rampant was bulldozer action of Sanjay Gandhi and Gang during the emergency. During the Emergency, Indira Gandhi's government prompted by her son Sanjay launched the demolition drive to cleanse Delhi of slums and force poor residents to leave Delhi and move to distant settlements. The residents of Turkman Gate mostly Muslims refused to move as they would have Livelihood in city Centre. They resisted the bulldozing of their houses. On April 18, 1976, the police opened fire on protesters killing several of them. The government who had earlier imposed censorship ordered the newspapers not to report the massacre. Indian public came to know about killings through foreign media like St. Peterburg Times and BBC.
10. The Case "Turkman Gate" 2
The Resident of turkamn gate plays their role in two parts majorly. One on that night and other one was strike against demolition. Slum dwellers tries to stop the demolition drive but they were force to move out by the local police. On that night local police came and said to evacuate their houses in an hour otherwise we will do it on our way. The spreading panic leads to a delegation of local residents approaching the Vice-Chairman of DDA, Jagmohan. When they questioned if the Turkman Gate residents could be resettled into a single colony known as „Welcome‟ or the nearby colony of Seelampur in East Delhi, he is said to have replied:
”Do you think we are mad to destroy one Pakistan to create another Pakistan?”
The police intervention leads to arrest of one man as the crowd retaliates with a protest and call for general strike around the entire area including Turkman Gate. When Sanjay Gandhi's pet Rukshana Sultana arrives at Dujana House, she barely escapes the furious local women when suddenly a message from Turkman Gate precipitates the situation - “They are massacring us here at Turkman Gate. Come and help us if you can.” Delhi’s Turkman Gate was bunilt in 1658 and derives its name from the grave of Sufi Saint Hazrat Shah Turkman Bayabani, which resides east of the gate. The gates lead off into a maze of narrow lanes that would twist and wind to the Jama Masjid with old-fashioned Havelis adorning the narrow lanes. The narrow doorways of these Havelis would open to courtyards and walled gardens with antique Persian carpets and dusty chandeliers. After Independent the neighborhood expended on southern side of te area and make area more congested and more complex. This neighborhood is purely Muslim and low economic people lives there. During The sanjay Gandi want to beautify the city and connect old city with new city, So head towards The Delhi Development Authority and the office of the Lieutenant to carried out the city beatification into reality. A Muslim stronghold in the 1970s, Turkman Gate is a critical example for the chroniclers of the 1975 Emergency as it symbolizes the coming together of the most talked about atrocities committed during the Emergency - the forced sterilization campaign and the demolition and ‘beautification’ of Delhi. There is no official account of the number of people who died in police firing that day, nor of how many were displaced. "Within a mere 21 months, an estimated 70,000 people were displaced from slums and commercial properties in large areas of old Delhi. Government order to make a resettlement plan for them. The DDA start working to rehab them into 39 different locations and under SRA scheme without counting them. People demand to relocate at the one location but DDA refuse and rehabilitate them all around Delhi. DDA make a neighborhood plan in which they provided only a plot area (22.5 Sq. Mt) with common toilets and basic civic facilities. With Provideing or thinking about their life’s and livelihoods. Locations For Resettlement During that time Nand Nagri, New Seelampur, Ranjit Nagar, Wazir pur, Sultanpuri, Welome, Hastal, Pankha Road, Inderpuri and some others. DDA allotted plot to 9000 Families and in Shah Report show that 15000 families was affected by demolition drive. So what about other 6000 families …? So i have a question here to all muslims who voted for Congress and INDI Allinaces: Do you ever read correct history before selling your vote for your hatred towards BJP and Narendra Modi??
11. The rise of a son
When On the morning of April 18, around 15 bulldozers rammed through the Turkman Gate and started razing houses, and shops of the residents. Temporary shelters for the herdsman Ghosi community were also not spared. When people objected, police resorted to violence and started fire upon the dwellers. It was a clear stamp of Sanjay Gandhi's de-facto writ all over. Sanjay Gandhi and his kabal of Rukhsana Sultana, HKL Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler, Kamala Nath, Bansi Lal all wreck havoc on the political opponents, masses and classes, media and anyone who was apposing emergency. It was a de-facto Sanjay Gandhi government in action. Sanjay had lot of influence over Indira Gandhi’s decisions, especially during the mid-1970s & during emergency. Sensing that he would be the natural successor of Indira Gandhi. In fact, so much was his influence over Indira that he had begun to take national decisions and in some cases even bypassed Indira Gandhi. Historical evidences suggests that Sanjay enjoyed being in power (without accountability) and in an interview with Kuldip Nayar, Sanjay had admitted that his plan was to indefinitely extend emergency, get rid of democratic institutions and establish Indira’s dictatorship forever.
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