Emergency Anniversary on June 25-26 annually becomes an occasion for Indira Gandhi bashing. This is done to a set plan and strategy, where the focus is on portraying her as anti-democratic and dictatorial, in a bid to tarnish her fair name and image.
This is the myth that was carefully nurtured, while facts are otherwise. Emergency imposition is portrayed more as a move to finish democracy in the country, in order to perpetuate her own rule in the country.
While her detractors tirelessly point out that Indira Gandhi imposed an Emergency on the intervening night of June 25-26, 1975, they conveniently forget that the self-same Indira Gandhi revoked the Emergency and ordered fresh elections on January 18, 1977. Probably, there is no other single instance in the world history of this happening, of being voted out of office.
Perhaps, India is the only country in the developing world to go in for social and economic changes through peaceful and democratic means. When the means were challenged, temporary recourse was taken to Emergency, to restore normalcy.
Besides, why no mention is ever made of the circumstances leading to the imposition of Emergency in the country? Perhaps they fear that if facts come out into the public domain, then the carefully constructed myth of Dictatorship versus Democracy would be exploded.
Functioning Democracy
Emergency was ratified in the Union Cabinet and ratified by Parliament. It was not only accepted but applauded by the nation. Emergency Proclamation was debated in Parliament, following which it was ratified. What better proof can be adduced of a functioning democracy?
As Indira Gandhi said in Parliament, “The very summoning of Parliament is proof that democracy is functioning in India. A large number of Opposition Members present is evidence that not every one of them is either in detention or behind bars. This action is totally within our Constitutional framework and it was undertaken in order not to destroy the Constitution, but to preserve it, to preserve and safeguard our democracy.”
Fairest-ever General Election
Indira Gandhi presided over the fairest-ever General Election in March 1977. In that election, Indira Gandhi lost her own parliamentary seat of Rae Bareli and her son Sanjay Gandhi in Amethi, even as the Congress was wiped out in the largest Hindi-heartland state of Uttar Pradesh and in several other parts of North India. In Gujarat, only two Congress MPs were elected, Ahmed Patel and Ehsan Jafri, losing the rest of the state. Similar was the fate of the Congress in other states in North India.
What is more, Congress lost power at the Centre in 1977, for the first time since Independence in 1947. No dictator could have held such a free and fair election.
Allahabad HC Verdict
There are some who link the adverse Allahabad High Court judgment in Indira Gandhi’s election petition, to the declaration of Emergency. There is nothing farther removed from reality than such a pernicious theory.
The Allahabad High Court judgment in the election petition, filed by Raj Narain, setting aside the election of Indira Gandhi, was delivered by Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha on June 12, 1975.
Justice Jaganmohan Lal Sinha, himself, put his verdict in abeyance for two weeks, to enable Indira Gandhi to approach the Supreme Court and obtain a stay. So, initially, the verdict was put in abeyance for two weeks. Within this period, Indira Gandhi approached the Supreme Court.
Conditional Stay
Justice V R Krishna Iyer of the Apex Court, as the Vacation Judge, granted Conditional Stay of Allahabad High Court judgment, permitting Indira Gandhi to take part in the proceedings of Parliament, but putting a bar on her taking part in a parliamentary vote.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court overturned the Allahabad High Court judgment. Parliament, too, enacted a law, protecting President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Speaker from vexatious and frivolous litigation. So, the Court case never posed a serious challenge to force Indira Gandhi to look for options.
Renowned legal luminary and Constitutional expert Nani A Palkhivala, appearing for Indira Gandhi, in her Appeal to the Supreme Court, came down heavily on the Allahabad High Court judgment. Palkhivala said, “The Judge, who wrote the judgment, does not know the law. It is like unseating the Prime Minister for breach of traffic law.”
Why Emergency?
Shockingly, the circumstances leading to the imposition of Emergency have been totally blacked out of the public discourse.
Importantly, an Emergency was not something Extra-Constitutional. Emergency was a Constitutional provision, that the Founding Fathers of the Constitution designed to tackle exactly the kind of conditions created in the country that led to the declaration of Emergency.
In her speech in the Lok Sabha on July 22, 1975, Indira Gandhi said, “Our Constitution-makers had foreseen that a situation might be created, not only external aggression but internal disturbance, when the fabric of national life might be threatened, and that is why they provided an entire part, entitled Emergency Provisions.”
“Democracy has not been endangered by what the Government has done, but democracy was being weakened, was being endangered and would have been destroyed, had the Opposition front been allowed to launch the direct action and its plan of sabotage under RSS guidance and to go ahead with its campaign to create dissatisfaction in the Army, the Police and amongst our industrial workers.”
An emergency is a Constitutional response to a war-like situation. The Constitution provides for External Emergency during times of War. The very same Constitution provides for Internal Emergency to deal with a War-like situation within the country.
Opposition Goes Beserk
Not the Indira Gandhi Government but the Opposition that had strayed from the path of democracy. It relied more on violence and disruption to achieve its political ends, losing faith in the democratic path.
In an interview with The Times of India on July 3, 1975, Indira Gandhi said, “Those whose ideology is violence and disruption cannot be democratic. For them to take the name of democracy is like the teenager, who killed his parents but pleaded for mercy on the ground that he was an orphan.”
The Opposition was well within its rights to cash in on a situation going against the Government. But the democratic way forward was to sustain the momentum of its agitation for 10 more months, as elections were due in March 1976. The Opposition chose to resort to politics of intimidation and coercion, straying away from the path of democratic mobilization.
The Opposition had a clear option to keep up the pressure on the Government for 10 more months. Winning the mandate of the people, it could come to power in the next round of elections.
Opposition Desperation
What is evident is mounting desperation in the Opposition. In 1971, the Opposition forged a Grand Alliance against the Congress led by Indira Gandhi but was routed at the hustings. After failing to dislodge Indira Gandhi electorally, the Opposition seized upon the idea of violent agitation, disruption and paralyzing national life.
Finally, the Opposition pinned hopes on the Allahabad High Court judgment in an election petition filed by Raj Narain to unseat Indira Gandhi. To its utter shock, that did not happen.
After failing to get a favourable order from the judiciary that would force the removal of Indira Gandhi from her office as Prime Minister, the Opposition chalked out plans to paralyze the nation and the Government. Gherao of Prime Minister’s residence at 1, Safdarjung Road, and Parliament House were planned. No one can go in and no one can come out. The idea was to paralyze the functioning of the Government.
This was followed by the public meeting scheduled for the evening of June 25, 1975, at the Ramlila Grounds in the Capital. It was there that the ultimate call was given to the Armed Forces and the Police to revolt.
No Government worth its salt can buckle or back out under such anarchic conditions. Indira Gandhi made bold to take head on the Opposition and reassert the majesty of the rule of law.
Opposition Restive
The Opposition, which had pinned hopes on Indira Gandhi’s ouster from office, following the Allahabad High Court judgment, became restive when it found its plan for Indira Gandhi’s ouster, floundering.
Clearly, the Opposition was convinced that it was a moment of Now-or-Never. All that the Opposition had to do was to sustain its agitation against Indira Gandhi for 10 more months, as elections were due in March 1976, as the previous General Election was held in 1971. Indeed, that was the democratic way forward.
But the hunger for office was so overpowering that the Opposition threw to the winds all democratic norms and principles. All that the Opposition wanted was to force Indira Gandhi out of the office and catapult itself into power.
Opposition Gameplan
The situation created prior to the declaration of Emergency betrayed the Opposition’s game plan. Railway Strike in 1974 paralyzed the national lifeline, causing untold hardship to the people.
Duly-elected State Governments were not allowed to function and in some States, tactics of intimidation and coercion were used to compel legislators to resign, in order to force a dissolution of State Assemblies. The Nav Nirman Movement in Gujarat and Bihar were examples.
If this was not enough, agitations surcharged the atmosphere, leading to violence and anarchy. There was an attempt on the life of Chief Justice of India A N Ray in the Capital. Union Railway Minister Lalit Narain Mishra was assassinated in Samastipur in Bihar. There was a call for incitement to the Armed Forces and the Police to revolt on June 25, 1975. This showed the lengths to which the Opposition could stoop to.
Indira Gandhi remarked, “The fact that the Defence forces and the Police are disciplined and deeply patriotic and, therefore, will not be taken in, does not mitigate the seriousness of the provocation.”
Michael Foot Tribute
Former British Deputy Prime Minister Michael Foot paid a handsome tribute to the leadership of Indira Gandhi. Michael Foot said if India was held together during that critical juncture, credit goes to Indira Gandhi.
Incidentally, Indira Gandhi scored a spectacular victory in the General Election in 1971, when she routed the Opposition Grand Alliance at the hustings. Barely she could relish her moment of glory. Soon she had a full-blown political crisis on hand when the Pakistan military crackdown began on March 25, 1971, in erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh. The crisis escalated into Indo-Pakistan War, which she won on December 16, 1971.
In 1973, the international oil crisis seriously hurt the Indian economy, resulting in inflation and rising unemployment. In 1974 came the crippling Railway Strike and the intimidating Nav Nirman Movement in Gujarat and Bihar. 1975 started with the assassination of Union Railway Minister Lalit Narain Mishra in Samastipur in Bihar, setting the tone for the politics of violence and disruption of the Opposition.
History should be kinder to Indira Gandhi than the Media and the Intelligentsia.
(The opinion expressed by the author are his/her own and does not represent the Editorial views.)
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