‘50 Years of Emergency': Political, social activists recall the ‘dark period', say ‘memories still fresh'

Indian Express

7 days ago

'It was around 10 am on June 26, 1975. I was addressing a small gathering under the banner of the Lok Sangharsh Samiti of Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, near the famous eatery Sher-a-Punjab at the junction of Lower Bazar and the Mall Road — just hours after the imposition of the draconian Emergency in the country.
I still remember deputy superintendent of police-rank officer Ami Chand approaching me. He put his right hand around my neck in a friendly manner and whispered in my left ear, 'Aayo Shastri ji, thodi sair kar kai aate hain' (Come Mr Shastri, let's go for a walk).
I couldn't resist, and that 'walk' lasted nearly 19 months — from June 1975 to March 1977,' Radha Raman Shastri, a former Sanskrit teacher in a government school, recalled. He was later elected as an MLA from Chopal, on a Janata Dal ticket.
A native of Chopal in Shimla, 82-year-old Shastri said: 'Instead of taking me to a nearby police post, I was directly taken to the Sadar police station where they served me two chapatis and a bowl of yellow dal. I assumed, like many, that I would be held for 24 hours and then released. But that illusion was shattered when I was bundled into another police vehicle and sent to the Nahan Central Jail. There, I met many contemporaries from across the state including the senior-most Jan Sangh leader, Shanta Kumar. In 1975, I was the general secretary of the Lok Sangharsh Samiti's Himachal Pradesh unit.'
'For almost six months, I was not allowed to meet my wife and children, who had moved to my father-in-law's house. Back then, I owned a printing press at Nav Bahar in Shimla, which was raided nine times as police suspected anti-government and anti-Emergency posters were published there. Eventually, I had to sell it for Rs 12,000 despite the purchase price being Rs 1 lakh,' Shastri added.
Bharat Bhushan Vaidya, an 83-year-old advocate, said: 'I was a practising lawyer back then. I remember how a large number of police personnel took me to the Boileauganj police station from my house a day after the Emergency was declared. Several others were also detained, without any explanation.'
Vaidya, another resident of Shimla's Subhash Nagar, said: 'Although I was released on bail much earlier than many of my contemporaries, the real sufferers were the families of those imprisoned for nearly 19 months.'
During the Emergency, each of the Nahan Central Jail in Sirmour district, Kaithu Jail in Shimla, and Solan Jail in Solan district was full with hundreds of political and social activists.
According to instructions of the Central government, activists from Shimla were detained in Nahan, and the ones from Chamba in Solan — to ensure their family members would not be able to visit them.
Including their family members, Shastri, Vaidya, and many others who had endured this 'dark period' attended a programme titled '50 Years of Emergency' — an exhibition, and a mock parliament — organised by the BJP in Shimla, where participants re-enacted debates between the ruling party and opposition leaders from that time.