Rajnath, Shivraj & Javadekar. How jail term during Emergency shaped leaders of today's BJP

The Print

3 days ago

Caught in that net were men linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the ideological predecessor of the now-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). At the time, many of them spent months, some well over a year, in jail. A few were students, whereas others were rising leaders. All carried the imprint of that period long after their release.
On 25 June 1975, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency, followed by the detention of voices across the political spectrum without any trials. The Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) became an instrument of control, granting the State sweeping powers to arrest and detain citizens without charges.
New Delhi: It began with late-night arrests, blank editorial pages, and police vans stationed outside the homes of opposition leaders.
Half a century later, some remain active in government and party roles. Others serve as governors or are on the margins of public life. Their recollection of jail, censorship, and resistance forms a crucial part of the institutional memory of the BJP and its claim to an anti-authoritarian legacy.
Many of those arrested five decades ago now occupy some of the highest offices. Others have stepped aside, but their stories continue to echo in party narratives and commemorative events.
As the Emergency completes 50 years, ThePrint revisits some of the then-jailed leaders, who, since then, have contributed to shaping the BJP, and how the experience of the Emergency years has stayed with them.
L.K. Advani
L.K. Advani, one of the most senior leaders arrested during the Emergency, spent over 19 months in Bengaluru Central Jail. A central figure in the Jan Sangh, he would later describe the Emergency as a moment when democratic values were under test, remembering who stood firm.
Now 97 and retired, Advani remains a symbolic figure within the BJP, his jail term during the Emergency still referenced in party literature and public events.
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Rajnath Singh
In 1975, Rajnath Singh, a 24-year-old physics lecturer in Mirzapur and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) organiser, was arrested under MISA. He spent 18 months in jail—a period he has repeatedly described as a defining chapter in his political and personal life.
The arrest deeply affected his family. Rajnath Singh's mother, already unwell, suffered a brain haemorrhage after learning the Emergency would be extended and her son would remain in jail. She was hospitalised for nearly a month and eventually passed away. Rajnath Singh could not attend the funeral. Denied parole, he was in prison when his brothers performed the last rites. The only ritual he was allowed to perform inside the jail was shaving his head.
Later, Rajnath Singh was granted parole on unrelated grounds but used the time to campaign against the Emergency. His activities led to his immediate re-arrest, even before the parole period had ended.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Rajnath Singh says he 'witnessed firsthand what a real dictatorship looks like'. The Emergency was a time of suspension of civil liberties, jailing of opposition leaders en masse, and wielding power without accountability, he argues.
On X, Rajnath Singh's post on the Emergency reads: 'Fifty years ago, a despicable attempt tried to strangle Indian democracy through the Emergency… The manner of imposition, ignoring the Constitution, is a great example of misuse of power and dictatorship … Today, democracy is alive in India. For this, all those who struggled, went to jail, and suffered torture during the Emergency have made a huge contribution.'
Now-Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh invokes the Emergency not as history but as memory, or his lived experience that forged his conviction in the constitutional order and the long struggle needed to preserve it.
Bandaru Dattatreya
In Hyderabad, Bandaru Dattatreya was active in the RSS and ABVP when detained under MISA. He would spend 19 months in jail. In later interviews, he has spoken about the personal cost of those days—how his mother faced social isolation but told him to stay the course. Dattatreya, now Governor of Haryana, continues to describe the Emergency as a turning point in his political awakening.
Murli Manohar Joshi
Then-physicist and Jan Sangh leader Murli Manohar Joshi was arrested in Uttar Pradesh. For Joshi, the Emergency was not only a political rupture but also a philosophical one—it confirmed that Indian democracy needed stronger cultural and ideological foundations.
He later served as Union Minister for Human Resource Development and remains a respected voice in the Sangh Parivar.
Prakash Javadekar
A young ABVP worker from Pune, Prakash Javadekar's experiences from the Emergency years include hearing about media censorship from his journalist father, going to jail with hardened criminals, and starting a handwritten weekly, called Nirbhay (Fearless), inside the prison with the inmates. He was jailed for 16 months under MISA.
Javadekar, who later held key Union portfolios, often describes his jail time as 'personally transformative'. He also calls the Emergency a 'murder of democracy' and says Congress has never truly apologised for it.
During his imprisonment, he underwent open heart surgery in a government hospital. 'But after that, I did not get parole … On 15 August 1976, I was back in jail. That was the cruelty they showed to all,' he tells ThePrint.
Explaining how the weekly was received in jail, he says, 'We used to write 20 pages … it would be a wallpaper-like thing, and we used to put it on all the walls of the different barracks. People used to rush and read everything.'
Moreover, he says his father, a journalist, witnessed firsthand how the government machinery crushed press freedom: 'He came and said: 'Now, the police officer has come into the office, and unless he gives clearance, we cannot print any news.' That was the worst press … never had the press been muzzled like that,' Javadekar explains.
Ravi Shankar Prasad
A young law student in Patna, Ravi Shankar Prasad, came from a family steeped in Jan Sangh politics. Arrested under MISA during student protests, he spent several months in detention. Those years would later inform his career as a lawyer and legislator.
He went on to become the Union law minister and remains an active MP.
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Shivraj Singh Chouhan
At just 17, Shivraj Singh Chouhan attended high school when the Emergency turned him from a student to a political detainee. Aligned with the JP movement, he was arrested in April 1976 after police barged into his rented room in Bhopal. Shivraj was physically assaulted, accused of circulating protest leaflets, and threatened with torture. Handcuffed, he was brought before a magistrate who remanded him without substantial evidence.
Shivraj spent over nine months in jail, missing his Class 11 board exams. While in jail, he witnessed fellow detainees endure brutal punishments, medical neglect, and chilling disciplinary tactics. One inmate died after being denied timely care.
Shivraj's grandmother passed away during this period, but he was not allowed to attend her funeral. Shivraj has described the period as a formative awakening to the fragility of rights and the dangers of unchecked power.
He would go on to serve four terms as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and now holds a Union Cabinet post.
Vijay Goel
Vijay Goel, a Delhi University student and ABVP organiser, when Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency, was arrested for staging protests and distributing anti-regime leaflets. Jailed under MISA, Goel later became a Union minister and two-time MP.
He describes the Emergency as his political baptism that shaped his beliefs and public life.
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe
As a student in Pune, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe participated in protests during the Emergency, and soon, police arrested him along with 16 others. He spent 45 days in jail after refusing to pay a fine for defying prohibitory orders.
During this period, he says, he engaged in deep political dialogue, including with inmates of different ideologies, such as the Communists, and began to see democracy as something earned, not granted.
Speaking to ThePrint, Sahasrabuddhe, who later became a Rajya Sabha MP and policy scholar, says, 'There was a constant feeling that we were under watch. When we offered satyagraha, the women police gave us enough time to talk before arresting us. Jail time made us realise that democracy is not a gift—it has to be fought for and protected.'
'Black Day'
For the BJP, the Emergency is not just a historical event but part of its founding mythology as the party continues to mark 25 June as a 'black day', honouring those imprisoned and using the period as a reference point to target the Congress.
'The BJP has always remained at the forefront of protecting the Constitution and democracy. As the former Jan Sangh, we saw our leaders jailed—Nanaji Deshmukh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh ji, and even Prime Minister Modi—all faced repression during the Emergency,' says BJP's national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan. 'We will always be present wherever the Constitution is under threat.'
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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