What makes the Emergency “the darkest hour” in India’s democratic history? Many answers are well-known but this question is worth revisiting, especially as a new Parliament begins its tenure. In a pointed coincidence, Speaker Om Birla, after his re-election, called out Indira Gandhi and the Congress for the “dictatorship” that was imposed, the horrors that marked those two years between 1975 and 1977. Their list is endless: The suspension of fundamental rights, the jailing of the Opposition, censorship and intimidation of the press, forced sterilisation, homes bulldozed in the name of “urban renewal”, a “committed” judiciary and a bureaucracy that remain a “blot on our history”. Significantly, Birla flagged how power was concentrated “in the hands of one person”, and the amendments to the Constitution were meant to destroy its “basic structure”. Not surprisingly, the Congress tried to shout down the two-minute silence. For, the Emergency touches many a raw nerve in its history and legacy; the party hasn’t slayed many of its demons from those days. Instead, it tends to brush all invocation of that period under the self-serving carpet of whataboutery. Indeed, the disruption by the Congress — most of its allies didn’t join in — stood out in sharper relief given how a copy of the Constitution has been the Opposition’s most visible accessory during the campaign — and after the results on June 4. The Congress, more so a revitalised Congress, needs to realise that condemning the Emergency is being on the right side of history.
That said, the BJP-led ruling establishment — by the very fact that it begins its third term as the ruling establishment — needs to learn lessons and take notes. At the Emergency’s diseased heart lay a fundamental violation — the government of the day used its electoral victory to make Parliament rubber-stamp laws that shrank freedoms and killed democracy. It’s the spirit of the Constitution — encapsulated in the Supreme Court’s “basic structure” doctrine — that is paramount. In practice, this must mean that a government is accountable, no matter its majority. It cannot wish away the Opposition or curb dissent.
The 18th Lok Sabha has an Opposition with renewed strength. One clear message from the mandate was apprehension among a section of the voters that an overweening majority imperils the Constitution. Misuse of central agencies, arrest of Opposition Chief Ministers, weaponising draconian laws — these did have an echo on the poll street. To do justice to its mandate, the Opposition must push for deliberation, debate and even contestation. The Speaker must allow them the space to do so. In the Winter Session of Parliament last year, as many as 146 MPs from both Houses were suspended. That act curtailed democracy. In his second term, Birla must give all Indians a voice through their representatives. That, as much as remembering the horrors of the Emergency, is the only way to ensure Never Again.
