Fifty years ago, tryst with fear
Fifty years ago, this day, India received a rude jolt when the Union government declared a national Emergency, that led to a suspension of constitutional rights, including civil liberties, and imposed authoritarian rule on the country. The 21 months that followed were a deeply lacerating time for a people who were building a republic on the foundations of the legacy of the national movement and the Constitution that gave legal sanctity to its ideals. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, singed by the Allahabad High Court verdict that convicted her of electoral malpractices, declared her election null and void, and disqualified her from holding elected office for six years, chose the shroud of the Emergency to stay in office. A pliant President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, did not object and the country slipped into a long night. Power supply to media offices was cut that night so that newspapers could not report the events underway. Politicians from Opposition parties, trade union leaders, and Sarvodoya leader Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), were arrested that night and organisations including the RSS, Ananda Marga, and Jamaat-e-Islami banned. A few such as Socialist Party chairman George Fernandes went underground to organise a pushback. An estimated 35,000 people were arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and 76,000 people were held under the Defence of India Act and Rules during the Emergency months. The government had its way with the Emergency because the institutions expected to provide the checks and balances failed to challenge the subversion of the Constitution. (HT Photo)
The government had its way with the Emergency because the institutions expected to provide the checks and balances failed to challenge the subversion of the Constitution. Like the President's office, the Supreme Court, except one judge, Justice HR Khanna, cowed before an imperial prime minister and her coterie that unleashed a regime of fear by weaponising legal provisions, suppressing free speech, and imprisoning the regime's opponents. Well-intentioned public policies such as population control measures to anti-corruption and black marketeering provisions turned into symbols of State repression and instruments to jail people. The administration used its publicity arms to claim that all was well with the nation and its citizens. JP, ailing and in jail, was the moral hand that guided the resistance to the Emergency. The political dynamic unleashed by Indira Gandhi saw a coming together of the Opposition parties, and even dissenters within the Congress party, which led to her defeat in 1977.
The Emergency marked a rupture in independent India's history. Political India was never the same thereafter, but the restoration of democracy following the massive mandate for the Janata Party was a redemptive action that instilled faith in the power of vote among citizens. The Emergency tested India's tryst with democracy; unlike most other post-colonial nations, it survived the fire, with scars.
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