Once upon an Emergency

Communicating 8216;our8217; fear, anxiety and impotence to those who have not actually experienced the Emergency is difficult. But can we afford not to do it?

Way back in 2000, the research institute I was then associated with decided to organise a one-day symposium on the 8216;Lessons of the Emergency8217;. On the silver jubilee of what many of my colleagues held as the darkest day in our fledgling tryst with democracy, I was expecting a spate of similar events. However, it soon became clear that the Emergency had become distant memory, resuscitated for the day primarily by those who either actively opposed its imposition or suffered the direct consequences of those 8216;dark8217; days. Most others had either moved on or worse, remembered the 18-month interlude as one of relative calm, growth and progress.

Much as this 8216;understanding8217; came as a shock to those of us who saw ourselves as 8216;political8217;, in itself it should not have come as a surprise. For a start, the political masters and the dispensation that defeated and replaced the Emergency regime left behind few positive marks. True, we got back our political freedoms as many of the non-democratic amendments to the Constitution were struck down. But the rapidity with which the Janata regime got mired in petty political shenanigans, failing miserably in carrying out the needed public education programme to usher in political reforms, only created opportunities for an otherwise discredited Indira Gandhi to recoup, rebuild the shattered remnants of her party and mount a successful bid for resumption of power.

Few today remember the ineptitude with which the political establishment handled the Justice J.C. Shah Commission set up to enquire into the excesses of the Emergency or even the botched attempts to arrest Indira Gandhi. And as our one-time heroes displayed feet of clay 8212; overweening ambition, factional struggles to consolidate personal power, attempts to push through ill-considered populist schemes throwing out IBM and Coca-Cola, and investing greater energy in settling scores with political rivals than attending to issues of governance 8212; in no time at all, Indira Gandhi began to be invested with a refurbished political aura. And nothing exemplified this better than the farce of a George Fernandes one day arguing for the incumbent Morarji Desai government in the no-confidence motion debate in Parliament, and the very next day changing tack, resigning from Cabinet and voting against the government. Are we surprised that by 1980, Indira Gandhi was back in the saddle?

A decade and a half later, the Emergency was all but forgotten. No surprise that my younger colleague who had been tasked with organising the one-day symposium complained, 8220;But, I was in school during those days. I have no memory of what happened. All I recollect is that offices actually functioned, that trains ran on time and that the city appeared cleaner.8221; Evidently for the younger generation, there was no memory of the pall of fear that affected even our everyday conversation, the ease with which we lapped up every rumour since there was no trust in newspapers or the radio. Not for them the aching feeling of loss as thousands were picked up and imprisoned, many friends, often on the flimsiest of pretexts, all branded as 8216;anti-national8217;. Trying to communicate 8216;our8217; feelings of fear, anxiety and impotence to those who had not actually experienced the Emergency confronted an unbridgeable chasm.

At the turn of the millennium what moved the generation that came of age in subsequent years was the fallout of Mandal, a reflection of the anti-political tendencies that came to the fore in the Emergency years. Or the incipient hatred of the 8216;other8217; fuelled by the anti-Muslim agitations fuelled by the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation and the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Today, far too many of us, more so amongst the educated middle classes, not only distrust politicians and political parties, we are impatient with politics itself. And as the political class loses its sheen, we turn to the non-electoral, non-representative institutions 8212; the judiciary and the Election Commission 8212; to fix and manage our system. The call today is to insulate increasing arenas of public life and decision-making from the 8216;virus8217; of politics and rely on professionals, corporations, public private partnerships and public-spirited NGOs to ensure efficiency.

If the promulgation of the Emergency was our darkest hour, the efflorescence of quiet and unsung civic resistance, particularly after elections were announced in early 1977, was our moment in the sun. The way common citizens came out in the public sphere, attended rallies and voted for even unknown candidates, despite the apprehension that the regime could again crack down was proof if any was needed, that democracy had struck deep roots. And it goes to the everlasting credit of Indira Gandhi that she accepted the verdict of the people.

Today, it is this that we need to remember.

The writer is consulting editor, 8216;Seminar8217;