The emergency imposed by late Prime Minister and towering leader of Congress party Shri Indira Gandhi remains the darkest hour of Indian democracy. It was not a stab or wound on free speech or democracy but a clear cut murder. It is the biggest taint in the history of Independent India. Clearly, the Indira Gandhi lead suffocation of Indian civilization through her ruthless act of imposing emergency in India. The biggest causality was the crushing of grand opposition of India, wherein the towering figures of Indian Polity like JP Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, George Fernandes, Mulayam Singh Yadav, LK. Advani were jailed.
Secondly, student activists and student polity faced the worst brunt as it was not only banned but scores of student unions banned and student leaders jailed all across the media. Through emergency Indira Gandhi tried to eliminate all together the fourth estate of Democracy as thousands of Newspapers were banned and hundreds of Journalists jailed. The tyranny inflicted in prisons of India on opposition, activists and Journalists was exemplary and brutal in every respect, often much harsher than the British era.
Nation is indebted to historic role of Jayaprakash Narayan who attracted a gathering of 100,000 people at the Ramlila grounds and thunderously recited Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar”s wonderfully evocative poetry: Singhasan Khaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai. Narayan was kept as detenu at Chandigarh even after he asked for one month parole to mobilise relief in flooded parts of Bihar. His health suddenly deteriorated on 24 October, and he was released on 12 November; diagnosis at Jaslok Hospital, Bombay, revealed kidney failure; he would be on dialysis for the rest of his life.
Scores of activists and leaders were arrested and some killed in custody during the ugliest emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. The stories of torture poured in from across the country. June 12, 1974, Ashwini Choubey a known face of RSS was picked up by the police, booked under DIR and held in Phulwarisharif Jail on the outskirts of Patna. It was a night of unimaginable horror. Choubey was tortured with red-hot iron rods, beaten with lathis and thrown onto a huge, hot iron tawa meant for making chapatis. The police also tried to blind him with spikes. And then wrapped him in a sack for “disposal”. At this time, fellow activists stormed the jail. Four days after the ordeal, Choubey woke up in hospital, with his kidneys damaged and severe burns on his body. He was then charged under MISA and rearrested.
Indira Gandhi through her son Sanjay Gandhi run several foolish and brutal programmes against masses of India. Also resulted in her son carrying out forced sterilization drives in Delhi and slum clearance programs. After 48 years of emergency one needs to do clear autopsy of developments.
“The President has proclaimed the Emergency. This is nothing to panic about. I am sure you are all aware of the deep and widespread conspiracy, which has been brewing ever since I began to introduce certain progressive measures of benefit for the common man and woman in India.”
With the announcement of these words on the All India Radio, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the historic moment of Emergency in 1975. But there were no such conspiracy against the Indira Gandhi existing then, also the opposition comprised of mature and seasoned voices of India. So Indira Gandhi wishes to impose the emergency in India was borne out of desire to be a one man show and Dictator of highest orders. It was a move aimed at converting India the heartbeat of global democracy into an ugly autocratic nation. The emergency base was formed on hyperbole of ‘Kyuki’ (because), India is Indira, and Indira is India!” The vision of Indira envisaging herself entire India gave a deep blow to the ethos and democracy of India.
Brave nation of India and brave voices of country who were never frightened even by tyrant kings of Mughal Empire or mighty colonial British did not allow Indira Gandhi to have my way is highway and kept struggling. In April 1974, in Patna, JP called for “total revolution”, urging students, peasants, and workers’ unions to bring about non-violent change in Indian society. The final straw was Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court pronouncing a verdict declaring Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha invalid due to electoral malpractices. In what turned out to be one of the most historic pronouncements in free India, the court declared her election null and void and unseated her from the Lok Sabha. It also banned her from contesting elections for six years.
PM Modi, Modern India’s proudest son made right tones about pain inflicted by the emergency era on eve of its 48th anniversary. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his part paid homage to those people “who resisted the dark days” of the Emergency declared by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. Today marks the 48th anniversary since the Emergency was imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975.
Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said the Emergency remained an “unforgettable period” in the history of the country and it was “totally opposite” to Constitutional values. One more point we can’t miss is when the grand children of Indira Gandhi especially the Likes of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi who are big Congress leaders this time browbeat on lack of freedom of speech on flimsy grounds but equally forget the horror and ugly situations brought in by the emergency period on soul of India, imposed by none other than their Grandmother Indira Gandhi. They have never ever braved to give a single sentence opinion on this darkest time of India.
Today after 48 years emergency still constitutes the most horror filled epoch of the independent, federal and democratic India. Congress needs to do a lot of soul searching on it if it has to become a credible party again. Emergency period will remain forever the bleakest reality of Indian democracy.
(The Author is Spokesperson & Prabhari Social Media BJP)
