Remembering India's Emergency: A Dark Chapter in History
The 21-month emergency period is such a blot in the history of independent India that by remembering it from time to time we can keep our democracy strong. This period was from 25 June 1975 to March 1977 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed internal emergency on the entire country to save her throne and abolished the basic or fundamental rights of the citizens. At that time, such a dark shadow had engulfed the entire country that there was no other example of it in the history of India. This emergency period was also like a blot on the history of the Congress Party because it was the Congress Party which had promised to provide basic rights to the citizens of India while fighting for independence.
During this period, all the constitutional institutions of the country were made powerless and toothless and even the rights of the independent judiciary were snatched away. During this period, there was no argument and no appeal and no lawyer. The entire country was converted into a prison. All opposition politicians and activists were put in jails. These included even labour leaders. No citizen had any means to raise his legitimate demands and if he raised his voice, he was put in jail. Independent India was witnessing such a scene for the first time. Censorship was imposed on newspapers. Freedom of journalists was completely snatched away. Only that was printed in newspapers which was approved by the government.
All this was done to maintain the power of only one person Mrs. Indira Gandhi because Allahabad High Court had declared her Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareilly seat invalid on 12 June 1975. After this, Indira Gandhi was given 40 days to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. But during this time she could not participate in any voting in the Lok Sabha or Parliament. The reason for this was that her Lok Sabha membership was terminated. Indira Gandhi had many options at that time. Congress Party had a huge majority in the Lok Sabha. She could have made any other leader of Congress the Prime Minister. Dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram's name was at the top of the list at that time because he was the most senior leader and was a part of the cabinet since Nehru's time. But Indira Gandhi did not consider it appropriate and imposed dictatorship in the country by blaming Jayaprakash Narayan's movement for imposing emergency.
The then Congress leader late Siddharth Shankar Rai worked very hard to find a provision in the Constitution for this, which was fully supported by Indira ji's younger son late Sanjay Gandhi. Thus, emergency was imposed in the entire country and all the agitating leaders were put in jails. Now if today's Modi government wants to organize programs throughout the year to keep the memory of this day fresh, then there is no harm in it because by doing so the countrymen will be aware of democratic rights and the passion to save democracy will remain awakened in them. But Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge has objections to this. He says that by doing this, the Modi government wants to hide its failures of the last 11 years and wants to keep the common people in confusion.
Mr. Kharge argues that if Indira Gandhi had taken the decision to impose emergency, then she had also taken the decision to lift it after 21 months and hold free and fair elections. These elections were held in the first quarter of 1977 in which the Congress party was badly defeated and was wiped out in the whole of North India. Congress got success only from four states of South India and other scattered seats and it got 153 seats. Even Indira Gandhi lost her election from Rae Bareilly and her son Sanjay Gandhi was also defeated in the election. Mr. Kharge argues that when the Janata Party formed the government in 1977 by defeating the Congress at the Centre, it could not last long and Lok Sabha elections were held again in 1980 in which Indira Gandhi again won with a huge majority and the Congress Party got just a few seats less than two-thirds majority.
In his view, this means that the people of India forgave Indira Gandhi for the mistake of the Emergency only after three years and expressed full faith in her leadership. Of course, Mr. Kharge's argument can be seen on the scale of victory and defeat in democracy, but the Emergency cannot be justified in any way. The Emergency will always remain a black chapter in the history of India which cannot be whitewashed by any argument. There is no doubt that in a democracy, the common people are the vigilant guards of this system, so if the Modi government wants to keep the people vigilant in this regard, then how can it be opposed.