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India Gazette
01-07-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
It has never happened that central govt has made its political agenda, govt's agenda: Digvijaya Singh on Centre marking 50th anniversary of Emergency
Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], July 1 (ANI): Congress leader Digvijaya Singh expressed his discontent with the Central government marking the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, and said that it has never happened that a central government has made its political agenda the government's agenda. Digvijaya Singh said, 'I have only one objection. Central government officials are writing letters to states and telling them to organise programs against the Emergency for one whole year. It has never happened that a central government has made its political agenda, the government's agenda. This should not happen.' Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday during the 123rd episode of his monthly radio address 'Mann Ki Baat' condemned imposition of Emergency in the country and termed the period as one of the darkest chapters in India's democratic history. He said that country is observing the 50th anniversary of the Emergency as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas'. During his address to the nation, he played rare archival audio of former Prime Ministers Morarji Desai, Babu Jagjivan Ram and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who described the Emergency as a time of constitutional murder, mass arrests, and the suppression of civil liberties and press freedom. The Prime Minister asserted that every citizen should remember the ones who fought 'bravely' against the Emergency and it also inspires us to stay 'vigilant' to 'safeguard' the constitution. PM Modi said, 'Morarji Desai describes the Emergency in brief... Not only did those who imposed the Emergency murder democracy, but their intention was to keep the judiciary as their puppet... Under 'MISA', anyone was arrested arbitrarily, people were tortured... Indians refused to compromise on democracy. Finally, people won and the Emergency was lifted. Babu Jagjivan Ram powerfully about this...' MISA refers to the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). In the audio clip of Morarji Desai, the former Prime Minister is heard recounting the horrors of the Emergency. Desai is heard saying in the clip played by PM Modi in his radio address, 'When the Emergency was imposed, people were treated inhumanely. Their right to freedom was snatched away, newspapers were silenced, and the judiciary was rendered powerless. Over one lakh people were jailed. Such an arbitrary rule is rare even in world history.' (ANI)
The Print
01-07-2025
- Politics
- The Print
'Villain Indira' vs 'hero RSS' binary is Sangh Parivar myth. Truth is more complicated
The BJP and Sangh Parivar's eagerness to mark this day is not surprising. The Emergency and its aftermath were turning points in the RSS-led Sangh Parivar's political trajectory that led to it being catapulted to power in New Delhi. Nothing suits the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) better than positioning Indira Gandhi as the dictatorial 'villain' against whom it waged a 'heroic' battle. The BJP-led government has announced 25 June, the date when the Emergency came into effect in 1975, as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas'. The BJP has held a series of programmes denouncing Indira Gandhi. A book, The Emergency Diaries, which propagates how Prime Minister Narendra Modi was affected by the Emergency, has been launched. Modi has divested himself of self-righteous statements about democracy being 'arrested' in 1975. Fifty years after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency, the ruling BJP is piously declaring how it fought a valiant battle for 'democracy' against 'great dictator' Indira Gandhi. But so called 'villainous Indira' vs so-called 'heroic RSS' is a cunningly crafted binary, a fictional morality play, a mythification of history, a fairy tale that is not borne out by a careful analysis of how the Emergency came about and what role the RSS played in the events before 25 June 1975. The 'Indira-Hatao' plank As Indira Gandhi's biographer—my book Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister was published in 2017—I had the opportunity to closely research the events leading up to 25 June 1975. The assiduously orchestrated and zealously propagated Sangh Parivar version of a power-hungry Indira Gandhi clamping down on democracy protestors to keep herself in power is part of a much more complicated story. In the run-up to the Emergency, there was a concerted attempt by the RSS and its allies to bring down an elected government through street power, mass agitations, threats of sabotage, paralysing essential services, and even inciting the armed forces to mutiny. True, Indira Gandhi was no beacon of democracy after 1971. Hailed as a 'goddess' after India's victory in the Bangladesh war, she had developed an overweening personality cult and a deeply narcissistic sense of her own power. She tended to see any challenge to her leadership as somehow illegitimate. She had gone from the darling of the masses in the 1971 'Garibi Hatao' election campaign to a monarchical figure who viewed the people as subjects and had turned the entire Congress party into a personalised instrument at her command. But nor was the role played by the then Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( the political front of the RSS and precursor to the BJP) and the RSS, either constitutional or democratic. In fact the Jana Sangh-RSS role needs to be assessed objectively. The Jana Sangh-RSS played a highly Machiavellian, destructive, and anarchist role and attempted to bring down the extremely popular Indira Gandhi (elected by a massive majority) through decidedly unconstitutional and undemocratic means. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh, founded in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and backed and run by the RSS, was a political flop throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Tainted by its 'Hindutva' ideological association with the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi (Nathuram Godse, a member of RSS), the Jana Sangh-RSS were regarded as politically 'untouchable'. It was consigned to the margins of the national mainstream for decades. The most prominent figure of the Jana Sangh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was a star in Parliament. He made blistering speeches from 1957 onwards, but the Jana Sangh remained marooned in the political wilderness, trapped in an acute image crisis it could not shake off. The RSS had stayed aloof from the Gandhian freedom struggle; it had no 'freedom fighter' credentials. Vajpayee himself was saddled with reports that he had once sided with the British during the Quit India movement. In the general elections of 1952, 1957, and 1962, the Jana Sangh was wiped out. The 'Hindu' party was able to win only 3, 4, and 14 seats, respectively. In these years, the Jana Sangh was buried by Jawaharlal Nehru's colossal presence. The breakthrough for the Jana Sangh came in the elections of 1967, the thunderclap election in which, after Nehru died in 1964, the once-towering Nehruvian Congress slumped to a wafer-thin majority of only 283 seats. In 1967, the Jana Sangh won 35 seats. This election came to be described as one that saw the disappearance of the 'Congress system'. The Jana Sangh was ecstatic with its 1967 result. But its hopes of expansion were rapidly dashed in 1971 when the Indira Gandhi-led Congress swept to a massive 352-seat win, once again crushing the Jana Sangh to 22 seats. It was a defeat that led to Vajpayee stepping down as party president. The anti-Congress 'Indira Hatao' plank, which the Jana Sangh-RSS had deployed in the 1971 elections, crumbled. In assembly polls of 1972, the Jana Sangh was pummeled, losing state after state. The 'Hindu' party was reduced to a dwarf, buried by the second generation of Nehru-Gandhis. To make matters worse, Deendayal Upadhyaya, the moving force behind the Jana Sangh's organisation, died in 1968, leaving the RSS-backed party with a leadership void as it lurched from defeat to defeat. The early 1970s thus saw the Jana Sangh-RSS frustrated and panic-stricken. It was chafing at its defeats, agitated that once again, Nehru's daughter Indira, would consign it to oblivion. Unsettled by the magnitude of Indira Gandhi's win, the Jana Sangh-RSS restlessly looked for ways to claw its way back to some relevance. When the monsoon failed for three consecutive years—1972, 1973 and 1974—the first 'oil shock' or massive four-fold rise in petrol prices hit in 1973, food shortages and price rise rampaged through the country. India was plunged into a full-blown economic crisis, and public discontent began to grow. A desperate-for-power Jana Sangh-RSS sensed an opportunity. In 1973, MS Golwalkar, the somewhat mystical, non-political RSS sarsanghchalak, died and was replaced by MD 'Balasaheb' Deoras. The hard-nosed Deoras was a more politically attuned figure keen to push the RSS and Sangh Parivar into a more populist, political and activist role. In 1974, the RSS student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Jana Sangh-RSS led violent 'Nav Nirman' protests in Gujarat. The Jana Sangh, along with socialists and the anti-Indira Congress (O), pushed to oust the chief minister of Gujarat and get the Gujarat assembly dissolved, and succeeded. The anti-Indira movement then spread to Bihar. The ABVP also played a leading role in the Bihar student protests, which began at this time. The Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, a forum created for the Bihar students' agitation, was dominated by ABVP activists. In Bihar, the Jana Sangh and allies pushed to dissolve the Vidhan Sabha through coercive tactics. The RSS had already reached out to the veteran socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, or 'JP', through RSS men like Nanaji Deshmukh. JP allied with the Jana Sangh-RSS in his quest for 'total revolution.' This enabled the RSS, for the first time, to find space in national politics. In JP, the RSS found a 'respectable' leader who could be its bridge to joining the political mainstream. In 1974, the Jana Sangh was already giving open calls for widespread street action. 'Our response cannot be confined to a parliamentary level,' Vajpayee said in 1974 at a Jana Sangh conference in Hyderabad. 'The war has to be fought in the streets, in the chambers and legislatures, in the corridors of power, in all sensitive power centres of the establishment.' 'Anti-Congress parties are obstructing development…their aim is to paralyse the government,' Indira Gandhi said at the time. N. Govindacharya, an RSS pracharak who would later go on to become a key figure in the BJP, was based in Patna in these years. He played a central role in organising mass protests in Bihar through the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti and mobilising RSS cadres. The anti-Indira movement coalesced around the figure of JP, but the bulk of the foot soldiers were made up of the ABVP and RSS. Socialists and Congress (O) were also part of the agitation, but their numbers were nowhere near equal to the huge organisational breadth of the massive RSS network. The anti-Indira groups caused so much violence, so many bandhs and protests across Bihar, that The Hindu wrote in an editorial in 1974: 'Should Mr Narayan usher in what is disorder and disrespect for law and order and the democratic set up as a whole?' Between 1972 and 1975, mayhem reigned across north India. There were strikes, gheraos, bandhs, violence, processions and student agitations. In all these movements, RSS and ABVP activists played a crucial role. The 1974 railway strike, involving two million workers, was led by a socialist, the fire-breathing trade unionist George Fernandes. But even he made his intentions clear when he openly declared that he aimed to organise a strike that would 'bring down Indira Gandhi's government.' The strike brought the railways to a standstill. George Fernandes would later go on to ally with the BJP. Then West Bengal Chief Minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray, an old friend of Indira Gandhi, wrote her a letter in early 1975 asking that lists of RSS workers be compiled, as he suspected they were the main force behind the disturbances. 'A secret telex message should go to every chief minister to prepare a list of all prominent Ananda Marga and RSS members in his state,' Ray wrote to Gandhi. So intense were the disturbances that on 2 January 1975, then railway minister LN Mishra was killed in a bomb blast in Samastipur railway station. Allegations were made against the secretive Ananda Marga group. There was an attempt on the life of the then Chief Justice, AN Ray, when hand grenades were thrown into his car. After these incidents, Indira Gandhi became convinced that there was a conspiracy against her government and that her life was in danger from the protestors. Her anxieties grew that India faced mass violence. In a scathing line, which reveals her views on the Jana Sangh-RSS, Indira Gandhi had said: 'If the Jana Sangh comes to power, it will not need any Emergency. They will chop off heads.' The methods used by the anti-government protestors in the early 1970s, 'are frankly coercive and undemocratic,' wrote The Pioneer. 'Trying to oust the (Bihar) Ministry, gherao the legislature, spreading disaffection among the police…and attempting to start a 'no tax' campaign may trigger off violence on an epochal scale,' the paper wrote in an editorial. 'The anti-Indira Gandhi movement used extra-constitutional and disruptive methods of protest, based on a rejection of democratic procedures,' writes PN Dhar in his detailed book Indira Gandhi, The 'Emergency', and Indian Democracy. The hardcore of this violent, undemocratic movement was the Jana Sangh-RSS. The number of RSS members arrested bears this out: 1,05,000 RSS activists were detained by the RSS's own admission. Also read: India deserves better than M-O-D-I: Misinformation, Opacity, Distractions, Incompetence Flattering the 'dictator' The declaration of the Emergency and the torments of those years have been justifiably pilloried. Indira Gandhi converted India into a spooky, stalled democracy, bullied the judiciary, and dragooned institutions into subordination. But those who led turbulent movements against her, who pushed India into strikes, civil unrest, killings, and mass protests, were not exactly democracy's angels. The Jana Sangh-RSS was intent on overthrowing an elected government and seizing power in any way they could from an immensely popular leader they could not defeat in elections. After being jailed by Indira Gandhi, the RSS suddenly changed tack completely and began to eat humble pie. Deoras, imprisoned in Yerawada Central Jail, wrote several letters praising Indira Gandhi and promising cooperation with government programmes. These letters do not show him as Gandhi's implacable ideological opponent. Rather, Deoras comes across as an admirer—fawning, obsequious, and eager to offer the RSS' services to the Indira Gandhi government. There is no mention in these letters about democratic rights. On 22 August 1975, Deoras writes to Gandhi: 'From the jail I listened with rapt attention to your broadcast message relayed from AIR and addressed to the nation on August 15, 1975. Your speech was suitable for the occasion and well balanced.' This is my humble prayer to you that you shall kindly keep the above in view and shall lift the ban on RSS. If you think it proper, my meeting with you will be a source of pleasure to me.' On 10 November, in another letter, Deoras writes that if RSS workers are set free, lakhs of volunteers will be utilised for 'national upliftment.' The RSS's view of Indira Gandhi was shot through with both admiration and wariness, what the historian Christophe Jafrelot calls 'both stigmatisation and emulation'. While the RSS strained every nerve to oust her from office in the 1970s, it became an admirer of the 'strong state' post-1975. Deoras even tried to meet Gandhi when he was released after 18 months, but she refused. Interestingly, after Indira Gandhi returned as Prime Minister in 1980, she herself flirted with Hindu politics, visiting dozens of temples and shrines and performing yagnas and Lakshachandi paath. In the Moradabad riots of 1980, she was accused of pandering to Hindu sentiments, and in 1983, she attended the inauguration of the Bharat Mata Mandir in Haridwar. In the Jammu & Kashmir assembly polls of 1983, she (by now under tremendous pressure from pro-Khalistan Sikh militancy in Punjab) played the 'Hindu nationalism' card by accusing her opponents of being secessionists. Indira Gandhi saw the RSS as her prime opponent, but in her later years, with the growing profile of the RSS, she recognised the importance of the Hindu vote bank. Sangh Parivar mythmaking The Jana Sangh-RSS opposition to Indira Gandhi in the run-up to the Emergency was not exactly a 'principled' struggle. It was a brazen quest for power and using street agitations and chaos to somehow force her out of office. However, once she cracked down on RSS, it showed a ready eagerness for compromise. Anarchist, unconstitutional methods were used. JP even called on the people to 'de-recognise' the Indira government, not pay tax and called on the armed forces not to obey government orders they considered wrong. The Jana Sangh-RSS and allies pushed the country to the brink, yet once the Emergency was declared and opposition leaders imprisoned, the movement quickly fizzled out precisely because it lacked strong convictions. Today, the BJP is propagating that a noble-minded RSS fought for 'democracy' against a 'dictator.' Not really. The RSS simply wanted to overthrow an elected Prime Minister using whatever means it could, and later had no moral compunctions in compromising, flattering, and pleading with the same 'dictator' who imprisoned them. The 'Indira the Emergency dictator' vs 'RSS-democrats' binary is Sangh Parivar mythmaking. The truth is more complicated. Indira Gandhi was an authoritarian leader who suspended the Constitution, but the RSS-led Sangh Parivar was not and has never been a crusader for democratic values. By leading and participating in an unconstitutional violent movement that tried to pull down a democratically elected government, the RSS was a wholehearted participant in 'Samvidhan-Hatya'. Sagarika Ghose is a Rajya Sabha MP, All India Trinamool Congress. She tweets @sagarikaghose. Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya)
Indian Express
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Emergency, Congress and a politics of hypocrisy
The Narendra Modi government has declared June 25, the day 50 years ago when the then Prime Minister imposed Emergency, as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas. It was the darkest chapter in the country's democratic history when Indira Gandhi undermined the Constitution, silenced dissent and plunged India into an abyss of authoritarianism. The party that destroyed the Constitution 50 years ago today claims to be its saviour. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently wrote an article in this newspaper ('Match-fixing Maharashtra', IE, June 7) accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of 'match-fixing' the elections to the Maharashtra assembly last year. His hypocrisy is staggering. While Rahul Gandhi cries foul over democratic processes without basis, he conveniently ignores his own family's and party's legacy of strangling India's democratic spirit during the Emergency. The Emergency was a brazen assault on the Constitution's foundational values. The Preamble's promise of a democratic republic was crushed as Indira Gandhi ruled by decree, suspended fundamental rights and cancelled elections. The Basic Structure doctrine, established by the judiciary in the Kesavananda Bharati case, was rendered meaningless as Parliament's amendment powers were misused to entrench her regime. The 42nd Amendment sought to make the executive unaccountable and undermined judicial review and the separation of powers. State governments were dismissed using Article 356. The freedom of the judiciary was eroded through the supersession of judges and the appointment of pliable loyalists. The media was gagged. Newspapers were forced to publish government propaganda and dissenting journalists were jailed. The Indian Express, headed by Ramnath Goenka, stood up against press censorship by publishing a 'blank editorial'. Perhaps Rahul Gandhi should be enlightened that this wasn't 'match-fixing' but an outright murder of democratic institutions. The excesses of the Indira regime spared no one. Artists and creative minds faced repression. Songs by Kishore Kumar were banned from All India Radio and Doordarshan because the legendary singer had refused to support the Emergency. Ordinary citizens, especially Muslims, endured forced sterilisations under Sanjay Gandhi's draconian population control campaign. Political opponents were hunted down. Over 1,00,000 people, including activists, journalists, and opposition leaders, were imprisoned without trial. In a podcast, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was in jail during the Emergency, recounted how he was not even allowed to attend the final rites of his mother. Among those targeted were towering figures like Jayaprakash Narayan, the Gandhian socialist who led the movement against Congress's misrule. Socialist leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad, who rose to prominence during the JP movement, were also jailed. These leaders fought Congress tyranny. Yet, in a tragic irony, their parties — the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal — now sit cosy with the Congress in the INDIA bloc. Lalu Prasad, in fact, named his daughter Misa after the draconian law which saw thousands jailed without due process. This U-turn betrays not just their principles but the sacrifices of countless Indians who resisted Congress's authoritarianism. The Emergency was not a mere administrative misstep but the placing of parivar tantra (family rule) above loktantra (democracy). Congress continues to do that. Today, when Congress accuses the ECI of partisanship without proof, when the Telangana and Karnataka Congress governments persecute journalists and social media activists, when Congress boycotts prominent journalists and arrests some of them, it continues to not only be in denial about their historical guilt, it also exhibits that its commitment to constitutional values and institutions is conditional — not based on convictions. If Congress wins an election in Telangana or Karnataka, the ECI is fine, if it loses in Maharashtra and Haryana then the ECI is 'fixed'. Rahul Gandhi cannot escape his party's dark legacy. Its repeated use of Article 356 to impose President's Rule reveals the party's disrespect of the Constitution's federal spirit and use of authoritarian shortcuts. If Congress truly cared about the Constitution, why did it oppose the removal of Articles 370 and 35 A which did not allow Ambedkar's Constitution to be implemented in Jammu Kashmir for decades and denied the implementation of reservations for SC and ST communities? Why does Congress advocate reservation on a religious basis in Karnataka and Telangana for Muslims, which is completely unconstitutional? Rahul accuses the BJP of 'changing the Samvidhan' but in reality, his family and party trampled upon it. The Emergency was the real match-fixing — the worst rigging of India's democracy. Far from being an exception, such actions have defined Congress's governance ethos for decades. Congress has never really been sorry for this dark chapter. Under Bhupesh Baghel, the Congress government in Chhattisgarh repealed an Act framed by an earlier BJP government to give a monthly pension scheme to people jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency period. This 50th year of the Samvidhan Hatya Diwas should serve as a reminder not just to every citizen to protect our Constitutional values, but also as a reality check for those who once murdered the Constitution's spirit and now masquerade as its defenders. The writer is national spokesperson, BJP
New Indian Express
30-06-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
‘Women-led development' paving way for new India: PM Modi at Mann Ki Baat
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the mantra of 'women-led development' is creating a new future for India. He stressed that the women are not only charting a fresh course for themselves but also for society at large. In his monthly radio broadcast Mann Ki Baat, the PM highlighted numerous examples of women-led initiatives from across the country. He said, 'In India, from health to social security, the country is moving ahead with the feeling of saturation in every field. This is also a great picture of social justice. These successes have instilled a belief that the coming times will make India stronger.' A vast majority of the Indian population is now benefiting from some form of social protection. Referring to a recent report by the International Labour Organization, he said, 'The report mentions that over 64% of the country's population is now definitely availing of some social protection benefit or the other. Social Security is one of the biggest coverage in the world.' He went on to say that approximately 95 crore people in the country are currently availing benefits from various social security schemes. In contrast, back in 2015, less than 25 crore people were covered. Taking a veiled swipe at the previous Congress-led government, without naming it directly, the PM remarked, 'Just a few days ago, the imposition of Emergency on the country completed its 50 years. We countrymen have observed the 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas'. We should always remember all those people who fought the Emergency with fortitude.' During the broadcast, PM Modi also played excerpts from speeches by former PMs Morarji Desai and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as well as former Deputy PM Jagjivan Ram, all referencing the Emergency period. Among other examples of empowerment, the he spoke of Bodoland's rise in the realm of sports. The PM also celebrated what he termed a 'remarkable milestone' — the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring India trachoma-free — and praised healthcare workers for their instrumental role. He added, 'The 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' helped in eradicating it. The 'Jal Jeevan Mission' also contributed a lot to this success. Today, when clean water is reaching every home through taps, the risk of such ailments has reduced.'
Indian Express
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Gujarat Confidential: Lot's in a name
Last week, the Gujarat government observed June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas (Constitution Murder Day) to commemorate the 50th year of imposition of Emergency in the country. The function was attended by former judge of Gujarat High Court, Justice (retired) R R Tripathi. In his speech, Justice Tripathi detailed how 'terrible the situation was in the country' when the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was put in force under which 'anybody could be put behind bars'. In this context, Tripathi cited the example of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and said, 'Lalu Prasad Yadav had named his daughter Misa…To remember the MISA legislation, he (Yadav) named his daughter as Misa,' Tripathi said. The function was attended by CM Bhupendra Patel and senior minister Rushikesh Patel among others. A Question of Legacy Following the tragic death of former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in the Ahmedabad plane crash, political circles in Gandhinagar are abuzz with the question of who would be the successor of the senior BJP leader's political legacy. Following his demise, Rupani was accorded full honours by the state government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In fact, Union Home Minister Amit Shah remained present at the funeral ceremony amid rains while standing by the Rupani family in Rajkot. A political observer of state politics said that considering Rupani's popularity that the party witnessed after his death, it remains to be seen who succeeds his political legacy. Rupani's son, Rushabh, has exhibited impressive maturity in his public appearances after his father's death, the observer added.
