The Emergency imposed in India in June 1975 till 1977 was one of the darkest times for the country. The 21-month period, when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave a brief vacation to the Indian democracy and took over the sole authority. The country observed the 41st anniversary of the Emergency last week with people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a special mention of the day.
Indira Gandhi, who grew up in a rather radical background of democracy, was just a few steps short of registering the country in the list of regions ruled by a dictatorship. Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 (1) of the Indian Constitution for "internal disturbance", people faced severe consequences of the decision. Media was censored, sterilisation was invoked, and elections were postponed. Indira Gandhi, a strong figure, led to a lot of changes not only in the administration, but her own political party as well. As many members began to succumb under her authoritarian style, the Congress party saw itself divided, and then separated into two parts. Gandhi's reign, however, continued uninterrupted.
Early 1974 brought bad times for India. Monsoon failed to arrive and the unemployment rate soared. Industrial production was down, massive labour and students unrest spurred in several regions of the country and poverty refused to back down. Opposition was piling up against Gandhi, including socialist Jaya Prakash Narayan, who openly led a movement against her, calling her corrupt and autocratic. Insecure about the internal unrest getting out of her hand, Indira imposed the Emergency, at the nick of time, stalling civil liberties. The Emergency draft was sent to the President, who signed it a few minutes before midnight, on 25th June 1975. She penned a '20 point' economic programme to increase agricultural and industrial production, improve public services and fight poverty and illiteracy, through the "discipline of the graveyard".
Gandhi's second son Sanjay took charge of the administration and started throwing opposition leaders and workers to jail all across India. Leaders including Jaya Prakash Narayan, George Fernandes, Morarji Desai, Nanaji Deshmukh, Subramaniam Swamy, AB Vajpayee, LK Advani, HD Deve Gowda, M Karunanidhi, Jyoti Basu, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav and others spearheaded the movement against the Emergency. They were, however, brutally oppressed.
Effects of the Emergency
Freedom of the press was curtailed. Within hours of declaration of the rule, power supply to all major newspapers was cut off. Censorship was heavily imposed with every publication, regional and national, forced to praise the government and stay away from criticism. Even when mainstream newspapers tried to have their own way, they were hindered at every possible step.
All of the Prime Minister's political opponents were arrested within hours of the declaration, and the crackdown on protests continued. Opposition leaders were jailed and parties like the RSS were banned. Four major religions were banned.
One of the bizarre moves made by the government was mandatory sterilisation. Led by Sanjay Gandhi, government officials were given 'targets' in which they were supposed to convince men into getting a vasectomy, in a bid to control population. While the administration maintained the programme was voluntary, there are several reports claiming the policy was misused by bureaucrats who coerced people into getting sterilised.
In a blatant abuse of power, the government's grip on the media was so strong that several incidents of suppression went unreported. Families of arrested leaders and protesters were often driven out of their homes, questioned and tortured without charges.
However, the dark times soon ended and Indira announced the Lok Sabha elections in January 1977. Held in March, the same year, Indira Gandhi-led Congress lost power as both the PM and her son Sanjay were defeated in their respective seats. The Janata Party came into power and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister until 1980, after which, Indira returned to power and remained till her assassination in 1984.
The period not only affected the country alone, but also saw impact on its external relations and the Indians settled in other countries. In the UK, Gujarat Samachar, and Asian Voice ran the strongest and the most vocal campaign against the declaration of the Emergency. Repercussions of which, were seen years later, in 1986, when Editor and Publisher CB Patel was detained at Mumbai Airport, for being an "anti-Indian", "pro-Pakistani" and, "pro-Khalistani".
