With Emergency completing its fortieth anniversary, newspapers, blogosphere and social media were riddled with stories recalling those dark days when the country teetered close to becoming a permanent banana republic. The recent statement by BJP patriarch and Emergency survivor L K Advani that it could happen again spiced up the issue.
During those infamous nineteen months, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's son, Sanjay Gandhi, was running the country as extra-constitutional authority and all forms of dissent were ruthlessly suppressed. All governmental institutions such as police, judiciary began to act to his bidding and press too, barring few honourable exceptions, got into kowtow mode.
My memories of that period is quite vague as back then I was not even in high school and my newspaper reading had not graduated beyond comic strips and cricket scores. Moreover I never came across anyone personally who went to jail or even had to undergo the infamous forced sterilisation. My awareness of Emergency was mainly retrospective, something I gained through conversations with elders and by reading Decline and Fall of Indira Gandhi a book by D R Mankekar and Kamala Mankekar.
The only thing I remember of that era is that during our visits to cinema halls, we had to sit through those tedious news reels, produced by Films Division, which prominently featured Sanjay Gandhi, V.C. Shukla and Ambika Soni. Those news reels would make us believe that the country should be grateful for this fantastic trio, who are working tirelessly to make India a developed nation. I seriously think that those documentaries played a stellar role in eroding Congress party's goodwill and subsequent rout in 1977 elections.
Another instance was when the Jaiprakash Narayan's movement had started gathering steam, somebody broached about the newly formed Janata party in our Maths class. Our usually gentle Maths teacher (who used to patiently correct our glaring trespasses in Algebra and Geometry) got a little worked up. She was sceptical about the movement and said it would bode ill for the country. She observed that Congress was such an old party and has done so much for the country, whereas these people cannot be trusted. She cited the example of long standing ruler of China Mao Zedong, who died around that time, and how that country had entered into a period of turmoil.
However history did not pan out the way our Maths teacher would have liked. After the fall of Congress government a rash of reports on Emergency excesses such as illegal detention, police torture and deaths and forced strerilisations started coming out of woodwork. Our newspapers and magazines, which got unshackled from censors, began reporting them assiduously. To cut the long story short, in the intervening 40 years the country had some close calls with its unity and integrity, but the dreaded 'E' word was never evoked. Probably the shock defeat in 1977 acted as a deterrent; still any future adventurism cannot be ruled out.
Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, who valiantly took on the might of the government high-handedness through those dark days, recently said that Emergency cannot be imposed now as the Constitution was changed after 1977 and it is almost impossible to impose it. Though the Constitution may have been made Emergency-proof, other fault lines remain more or less untouched.
The police, bureaucracy, judiciary and the press remain as malleable (if not more) as they were during the Emergency and inspire little confidence. Post-Emergency, the numerous scams all these departments got embroiled in reveal that the rot has only become more deep and the erosion of credibility has been phenomenal.
Hence for a future ruler with dictatorial aspirations, it is a case of glass half-full. He or she only needs to work around by whipping up sentiments such as majoritarianism or militarism to bring about Emergency like situation, without its Constitutional trappings. The rest of the institutions will fall in line without much ado as they did in 1975. Hence the people of the country cannot afford to forget Emergency and let their guard down.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
During those infamous nineteen months, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's son, Sanjay Gandhi, was running the country as extra-constitutional authority and all forms of dissent were ruthlessly suppressed. All governmental institutions such as police, judiciary began to act to his bidding and press too, barring few honourable exceptions, got into kowtow mode.
My memories of that period is quite vague as back then I was not even in high school and my newspaper reading had not graduated beyond comic strips and cricket scores. Moreover I never came across anyone personally who went to jail or even had to undergo the infamous forced sterilisation. My awareness of Emergency was mainly retrospective, something I gained through conversations with elders and by reading Decline and Fall of Indira Gandhi a book by D R Mankekar and Kamala Mankekar.
The only thing I remember of that era is that during our visits to cinema halls, we had to sit through those tedious news reels, produced by Films Division, which prominently featured Sanjay Gandhi, V.C. Shukla and Ambika Soni. Those news reels would make us believe that the country should be grateful for this fantastic trio, who are working tirelessly to make India a developed nation. I seriously think that those documentaries played a stellar role in eroding Congress party's goodwill and subsequent rout in 1977 elections.
Another instance was when the Jaiprakash Narayan's movement had started gathering steam, somebody broached about the newly formed Janata party in our Maths class. Our usually gentle Maths teacher (who used to patiently correct our glaring trespasses in Algebra and Geometry) got a little worked up. She was sceptical about the movement and said it would bode ill for the country. She observed that Congress was such an old party and has done so much for the country, whereas these people cannot be trusted. She cited the example of long standing ruler of China Mao Zedong, who died around that time, and how that country had entered into a period of turmoil.
However history did not pan out the way our Maths teacher would have liked. After the fall of Congress government a rash of reports on Emergency excesses such as illegal detention, police torture and deaths and forced strerilisations started coming out of woodwork. Our newspapers and magazines, which got unshackled from censors, began reporting them assiduously. To cut the long story short, in the intervening 40 years the country had some close calls with its unity and integrity, but the dreaded 'E' word was never evoked. Probably the shock defeat in 1977 acted as a deterrent; still any future adventurism cannot be ruled out.
Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, who valiantly took on the might of the government high-handedness through those dark days, recently said that Emergency cannot be imposed now as the Constitution was changed after 1977 and it is almost impossible to impose it. Though the Constitution may have been made Emergency-proof, other fault lines remain more or less untouched.
The police, bureaucracy, judiciary and the press remain as malleable (if not more) as they were during the Emergency and inspire little confidence. Post-Emergency, the numerous scams all these departments got embroiled in reveal that the rot has only become more deep and the erosion of credibility has been phenomenal.
Hence for a future ruler with dictatorial aspirations, it is a case of glass half-full. He or she only needs to work around by whipping up sentiments such as majoritarianism or militarism to bring about Emergency like situation, without its Constitutional trappings. The rest of the institutions will fall in line without much ado as they did in 1975. Hence the people of the country cannot afford to forget Emergency and let their guard down.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
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