Emergency, 50 years on: The Sanjay gang, and what Shah Commission said about them

Indian Express

5 hours ago

To investigate the widespread abuse of power during the Emergency from 1975 to 1977, the then newly elected Janata Party government headed by Prime Minister Morarji Desai appointed a commission of inquiry under former Supreme Court Chief Justice J C Shah in May 1977.
The Shah Commission submitted its findings in 1978 in a report that detailed the alleged misuse of power by politicians and bureaucrats, particularly those considered close to former PM Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay, during the Emergency.
Since the panel had been solely tasked with fact-finding as per the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, it meant it was not authorised to take any action of its own accord. Only the government could decide how to proceed with its findings, and after the Indira Gandhi government came to power, the report was quietly buried. Days after the Narendra Modi government returned for a third term in power last year, a demand was made in the Rajya Sabha to table the Shah Commission report.
A look at the key figures who came under the Commission's scanner.
Sanjay Gandhi was one of the six people against whom the Shah Commission ordered the filing of complaints, for refusing to take oath or give evidence under oath in different cases. The Commission ordered cases against Sanjay in five matters – alleged harassment of a firm; demolitions in Kapashera, Andheria Morh, and Karol Bagh in New Delhi; and for reportedly pressuring magistrates to sign a backdated order in case of the police firing at Turkman Gate in April 1976.
As per the Commission, Sanjay initiated the demolitions in Kapashera and other villages located along the Delhi-Gurgaon road, as he reportedly saw these structures as 'eyesores' that he encountered en route to the Maruti factory he had helped establish in Haryana.
The firm that the Commission said had faced Sanjay's ire was 'Pandit Brothers', with its manager and the two partners arrested. The Shah Commission report quoted Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Krishan Chand as saying that sales tax and price tag raids were initiated on the firm under Sanjay's orders.
Nikhil Chakravarty, the then editor of the weekly Mainstream, told the Commission that the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister during the Emergency, V C Shukla, told him that articles critical of Sanjay were not permitted. When Chakravarty refused to give assurances that his outlet would comply, 'pre-censorship' orders were imposed on Mainstream.
Shukla, however, told the Commission that he 'merely advised' Chakravarty and any action taken against the editor or the publication 'had nothing to do with the acceptance or otherwise of my advice'.
S C Bhatt, the then Director of All India Radio's (AIR) News Services Division, told the Commission that throughout the Emergency, the government 'policy' was to play up the speeches of Mrs Gandhi and Sanjay. Bhatt said 'written and unwritten instructions' were frequently received by AIR from Shukla himself, who justified the publicity to Sanjay on the grounds that even private media was paying close attention to the Congress leader at the time.
The Commission also summoned Shukla in a case linked to 22 employees of the AIR and Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) being engaged in February 1977, after the elections had been called, to translate the Congress manifesto into 10 languages, allegedly on Shukla's instructions. He denied he was behind the orders.
The Commission concluded that Shukla had 'violated the basic norms of administration'.
Shukla was also named in the Commission's inquiry into the 'harassment' of famed playback singer Kishore Kumar, for refusing to cooperate with the government. The Commission said Shukla was 'responsible for the various disabilities inflicted on Kishore Kumar'.
The Commission ordered filing of complaints against then Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal for refusing to take oath or give evidence under oath in the detention cases of Murlidhar Dalmia, M L Kak, Pritam Dutta, Ishwar Lal Chowdhary and Pitambar Lal Goyal.
Dalmia was the chief adviser at the Technological Institute of Textiles in Bhiwani, Haryana. On November 30, 1975, the district magistrate of Bhiwani issued detention orders under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) against Dalmia on the grounds that he was a staunch follower of the RSS, and that after the organisation was banned, he often criticised Mrs Gandhi and her government.
The Commission said the evidence before it showed Dalmia was detained because of Bansi Lal's 'spite against him'. Charges on 'non-existent grounds were fabricated' to detain Dalmia, the report said, adding that Bansi Lal 'abused his authority' and continued to abuse his position after he became the Union defence minister during the Emergency.
M L Kak, a correspondent of The Tribune, was detained the same day as the Emergency was invoked under MISA, also on the grounds that he was an active member of the RSS, that he had spread violent and false propaganda against the government, and that he incited the public to overthrow Central and state governments by force. Kak told the Commission that he incurred the 'dislike' of Bansi Lal because of his critical reporting on the Haryana government.
Pritam Dutta, a retired Navy Commander from Rohtak, had obtained wholesale distributorship rights in Haryana for products of Khodays, a Bengaluru-based liquor company. In 1974, he declined to allot a sub-agency of Khodays's products to one Ram Chander, 'who was close to CM Bansi Lal'. The Commission found that Bansi Lal 'grossly misused' his authority in the case of Dutta.
In the case of Ishwar Lal Choudhary, a district employment officer in Bhiwani, the report said he had 'incurred the displeasure' of Bansi Lal's son Surinder Singh and political secretary Mahabir Parshad for refusing to comply with their 'irregular requests' to include their nominees in lists of candidates forwarded by the Employment Exchange to employers. The Commission said the illegal detention of Choudhary illustrated Bansi Lal's 'capricious and highly arbitrary style of administration'.
Pitamber Lal Goyal, an advocate in Bhiwani district, told the Commission that his father, grandfather and uncle were victims of Bansi Lal's 'relentless vendetta' during the Emergency owing to a political rivalry between their families. The Commission found Bansi Lal's conduct in this case 'reprehensible'.
Swami Dhirendra Brahamchari, a yoga guru who in 1973 founded the Aparna Ashram in J&K and was known as Mrs Gandhi's yoga teacher, held considerable influence in the Congress government.
In 1973, Brahamchari floated Aparna Agro Private Limited with the intention of dealing in aircraft. In March 1976, he wrote to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) requesting permission to keep at his J&K ashram an 'agricultural spraying aircraft' that, he said, had been 'donated' by an American company to him. The DGCA was sent two requests by him in this regard, until then Union Defence Minister Bansi Lal allegedly intervened.
'The evidence before the Commission leads to the conclusion that the initial decision to reject the proposal twice… on valid grounds of security and sensitivity of the area was subsequently changed in favour of granting the permission, though with some conditions attached, at the instance of Bansi Lal,' the Commission said.
The logbook of the aircraft showed that Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi had used it, for personal trips as well as 'practice flights' by Sanjay.
In July 1976, Brahamchari requested the Central Board of Excise and Customs for an exemption on paying Customs duty on aircraft on the grounds that Aparna Ashram was a 'charitable' institution.
Though Brahmachari appeared before the Commission, he refused to take oath and provide evidence in his case.
'From the evidence it is quite clear Brahamchari obtained the Customs clearance permit by misrepresenting that the aircraft was a donation, when it was in fact purchased by him… Brahamchari fully exploited his association with the then Prime Minister's house in getting the aircraft imported by misrepresenting it as a gift. He has actively abetted the subversion of established administrative procedures,' the Commission said.
The Commission also made adverse remarks on the functioning of various officers, including prominent figures like Delhi Development Authority (DDA) vice-chairman Jagmohan, CID Superintendent of Police K S Bajwa, Deputy Inspector General of Police-Range in Delhi P S Bhinder, and Navin Chawla, the Secretary to Delhi the L-G.
As DDA vice-chairman, Jagmohan was at the heart of demolitions in Delhi as part of Sanjay's five-point programme, including slum clearance and tree planting. The Commission noted that while 1,800 structures had been demolished in a two-and-a-half year period before the Emergency, between 1975 and 1977, 1.5 lakh structures were demolished, more than 90% by the DDA.
K Raghuramiah, the then minister for works and housing, suggested to the Commission that Jagmohan was taking orders from the Prime Minister's house. 'Jagmohan grossly misused his position and abused his authority. He, during the Emergency, became a law unto himself and went about doing the biddings of Sanjay Gandhi without care or concern for the miseries of people,' the Commission said.
The Commission also spoke about the 'misuse' of preventive sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure for detentions in Delhi, and noted that some MISA warrants were deliberately kept unexecuted, allegedly on the directions of Bajwa and Bhinder to SPs. Though Chawla, the L-G's secretary, had no position in the jail hierarchy, the Commission said he exercised 'extra-statutory control' in jail matters and sent instructions, including on the treatment of particular detainees.
'(L-G) Krishan Chand by his various actions and inactions… appears to have abdicated his legitimate functions in favour of an overambitious group of officers like Bhinder, Bajwa and Chawla… He betrayed his trust and committed a serious breach of faith with the citizens of Delhi,' the Commission said.