Opinion 50 years after the 1975 emergency, lessons Indians have not forgotten

This year marks the beginning of the 50th year since the imposition of Emergency on June 25, 1975. It was imposed because of the political insecurity of the then Prime Minister, not because of any genuine “internal disturbance”. Many factors were making the PM’s position untenable at the time. Among them were concentration of power in the hands of one leader, lack of respect for democratic functioning, a culture of sycophancy, corruption in the vital organs of the state and the undermining of constitutional organs like the judiciary. Amidst widespread resentment against misrule, Jayaprakash Narayan called for “sampoorna kranti” (total revolution) and the nation responded in unison.

The last straw was the judgment of the Allahabad High Court on June 12, 1975, which nullified the election to the Lok Sabha of the then Prime Minister in 1971 on the grounds of abusing official machinery for electoral gains. Emergency was proclaimed two weeks later.

The first lesson to be learnt from the dark saga of Emergency is how not to govern the state. Our Constitution mandates democratic governance based on people’s participation, wider consultations and consensus, conformity with the spirit and provisions of the Constitution and compliance with the laws made by the legislature. Despotism has no place in democracy. The period from 1971 to 1975 saw brazen violations of all conventions of democracy. People’s resentment against growing misrule and abuse of power was misunderstood as a threat to despotic rule. The Supreme Court’s judgments in Golaknath and Kesavananda Bharati in defence of the basic rules and framework of the Constitution and in support of the fundamental rights of citizens were taken as serious threats to rule by an individual. This was also the case with the Allahabad High Court judgment.

An elected ruler can’t afford to have an unclean mind and hands. She or he should rule in the best interests of the people, in true democratic spirit, within the constitutional framework, not in personal interest and for aggrandisement.

The second lesson is that people, including the poor, do not live by bread alone and that they draw greater meaning from their lives. They want to live with dignity and self-respect too. They value their right to freedom of speech, their right to life, etc. They won’t tolerate any infringement on fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The 21-month-long saga of Emergency was lifted on March 21, 1977. India was poorer and more illiterate than now. In the general elections that followed, the poor and illiterate Indians revolted against the excesses of the Emergency and voted in the first-ever non-Congress government at the Centre. Individual rights that accord dignity to life are as important to people as their daily bread.

Since 1977, people have often expressed their concerns about such rights in different elections. They have expressed their aversion to leaders who have betrayed arrogance, disrespected democracy, degraded the spirit of the Constitution and acted against the laws and interests of the people. Humility and a demonstrated spirit of service to the people are highly regarded and rewarded in democracy.

There is a third lesson to draw from this chapter in history. The excesses committed during the Emergency are too many to recall in this space. A reign of terror prevailed across most parts of the country and citizens, deprived of fundamental rights, lived in a state of fear. Amidst this, every organ of the state and every pillar of the Constitution crumbled, and the media was no exception.

The role of large sections of the media during the time has come in for sharp criticism. Except for The Indian Express under the fiery Ramnath Goenka, The Statesman headed by C R Irani and Nikhil Chakravarty’s The Mainstream, the print media of the time surrendered meekly to the diktats of the government. As my mentor, Lal Krishna Advani told journalists after the Emergency had been lifted,“You were asked only to bend, yet you crawled.”

The government used preventive detention provisions nationwide to suppress dissent and stifle opposition voices. Leading lights of the Opposition, including stalwarts like Jayaprakash Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani, J B Kripalani and many others, were detained.

As I was actively engaged in student politics at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, in 1974, J P Narayan appointed me as convenor of the J P Yuvajana Chhatra Sangharsha Samiti, Andhra Pradesh unit. Later, I was detained under MISA for seventeen-and-a-half months in three different jails. The only reason for my detention was that I had invited J P Narayan to the university to address the students.

To learn from such excesses and their implications for democracy, the dark saga of the Emergency, the factors that led to it and its consequences should be made a part of the curriculum for students. All of us, and the youth particularly, need to learn from history to guard against such unsavoury episodes. Let’s resolve to safeguard our democracy. The Emergency serves as a stark reminder of the need to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals in any society. As the well-known adage goes, “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

The writer is former Vice President of India