50 years of Emergency: ‘Our secret press defied emergency censorship'; underground bulletins, 2.5-month mission & arrest in UP's Varanasi
LUCKNOW: As the country marks 50 years of the imposition of Emergency in 1975, senior journalist and former activist of Jayaprakash Narayan's Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini, Ramdutt Tripathi, recounted how a secret press network in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) defied one of the most repressive censorship regimes in independent India.
Speaking to TOI, Tripathi described how a group of young activists operating from secret hideouts near railway stations and village shelters, ran an underground publication campaign to counter state propaganda after the suspension of civil liberties by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
'Immediately after the Emergency was declared, electricity supply to Delhi's newspaper offices was snapped and all media content was subjected to pre-censorship.
Some newspapers protested silently — printing blank spaces or blacked-out editorials to show something was amiss. To make people aware and spread the message, we secretly ran press while hiding underground,' he recalled.
To avoid arrest, Tripathi and his colleague in Allahabad went underground. 'Khadi kurtas' were swapped for trousers and shirts, fake spectacles were donned, and anonymity was easier in a pre-digital India with no Aadhaar or surveillance networks.
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From a small hideout near Rambagh railway station, the group began publishing bulletins using a hand-operated cyclostyle duplicator, ironically purchased from a shop near a police station.
'We worked in the dark, cutting stencils by hand to print headlines like 'How is JP's health?' besides publishing accounts of govt excesses,' Tripathi said.
Distribution was equally risky. Bulletins were either couriered through trusted networks or posted discreetly. 'Some even reached their targets via post,' he added.
The Allahabad group's covert operation lasted nearly two and a half months. It ended with Tripathi and a colleague being arrested in Varanasi on Sep 14, 1976, while going to Azamgarh seeking guidance from senior Sarvodaya leaders.
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