July 1, Forty Years Ago: Misa amended

A look at the front page of The Indian Express, published on July 01, Forty Years Ago.

The Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971, was amended through presidential ordinance. After the amendment, a person arrested under Misa did not need to be told the reason for their detention. The authority executing the arrest only needed to declare that it was necessary for the effective execution of the Emergency. The detention would be reviewed by the government four months after the arrest.

Pravda’s truth
Pravda, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, wrote that “the people of India have approved of the decree on the proclamation of a state of Emergency rendered necessary by the open conspiracy of reaction against the government of the country, against democracy”. “Pravda”, which in Russian means truth, said “democratic forces approve of the arrests of leaders of rightwing parties carried out by the authorities, the introduction of censorship, which will deprive the monopoly press of the opportunity to carry on instigating an anti-government campaign”.

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Abu on censorship
A day after a few Congress MPs sought the expulsion of the BBC’s India correspondent for “hostile reporting”, Abu Abraham drew a cartoon that showed two persons carrying a fat man on a stretcher towards the emergency ward. The speech balloon identified the man on the stretcher as an MP knocked down by the BBC. The two men, one short and fat and the other tall and lean, were caricatures of two persons who, in Abu’s words, had spotted the cartoonist at an AICC meet in Bangalore in 1969. They became a regular feature of Abu’s pocket cartoon, Private View.

Prajaniti shuts
The Indian Express announced the closure of its Hindi weekly, Prajaniti, on the front page.