o The 21 month emergency beginning 25 June 1975 declared under the Article 352 of the Indian constitution effectively made Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, a Dictator.
o It is one of the most shameful periods in the history of independent India during which the press was censored, people were forced to undergo vasectomies, and power of the Government was rampantly abused by anyone who was favoured by the Gandhi family.
o As a result of the Emergency, many buildings were razed, laws were scrapped/ violated by the government, people were forcibly sterilised, innocents were killed, and the constitution was amended while the press was muzzled all throughout.
o The official reason cited for the Emergency was extremely unclear and unspecific. The inside reason for this is explained below -
The Trigger - Raj Narain, who had been defeated in the parliamentary election by Indira Gandhi, lodged cases of election fraud and use of state machinery for election purposes against Mrs. Gandhi in the Allahabad High Court.
The Wound - On 12 June 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court found the Prime Minister guilty on the charge of misuse of government machinery for her election campaign. The court declared her election null & void and unseated her from her seat in the Lok Sabha. The court also banned her from contesting any election for an additional six years. She was held responsible for misusing the government machinery, and found guilty on charges such as using the state police to build a dais, availing the services of an IAS officer, Yashpal Kapoor during the elections, and use of electricity from the state electricity department.
The Real Enemy – All this while, an anti-Indira group had been gaining strength inside Congress for a long time, and many high positioned men were gathering support to take over the position of the Prime Minister namely – Jagjivan Ram, Swaran Singh & the various Young Turks. It is said that she feared not the judgment or the opposition as much as the rising discontent amongst her own party members. As a result, Mrs.Gandhi considered making Kamlapati Tripathi the temporary PM to tide away the opposing uproar from within her party, but refrained from doing so knowing well her party members intent; Jagjivan Ram, the No.2 of the Congress, and a long standing supporter of Indira Gandhi was known to have said that “We shall support Tripathi on the condition that he does not allow her (Indira) to come back”. Which is why Indira later decided against having a temporary PM, as once an investigation begun against her, her chances of political revival would be nulled due to the great damage it had do to her reputation.
The Second Bullet - As per the procedure, Indira Gandhi filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court’s judgment. The appeal was being petitioned before Jutice V R Iyer. While the judgment was still a few days away from announcement, the ruling had already been circulated and passed amongst the masses by word of mouth.
In a complete blow to Indira’s plans and wishes, Justice V R Iyer refused to give her unconditional stay, as demanded by her in the parliament and adjudged a conditional stay allowing her to remain a Member of the Parliament, but disallowing her to take part in the proceedings of the Lok Sabha.
The Shoulder and the Brains - Finding his mother reeling in such political turmoil, Sanjay Gandhi readied his own gang of political hooligans to oust any attempt to dislodge his mother from power. For this he sought help from his friend Bansi Lal, the then Chief Minister of Haryana Jagmohan Malhotra & Devkant Baruah.
He along with his friends thought over all possibilities to protect Indira’s stature, position and political career. It was in one such meeting that Sidhartha, a barrister by profession and the then Chief Minister of Bengal came up with the solution of imposing EMERGENCY in India as a possible solution to the situation.
The Resolution - Sanjay who was always in favor of dictatorship and absolute rule took great liking towards this idea. Indira too readily agreed to this idea as this way not even law could go against her as once emergency is imposed, there is no law left in the country.
The indignant prime minister apparently wanted to silence criticism or the possible upheaval of opposition and in her myopic wisdom proclaimed Emergency.
o It was decided that Emergency would be declared at midnight of the day Supreme Court was to formally give its judgement on Indira’s appeal.
o Only five people in the country knew that such a step was being planned, namely - Indira, Sanjay, Bansi lal, Dhavan, Om Mehta, Kishan Chand and Sidhartha. Later Baroah was added in on the scheme of things on 24th June. Not even the president was aware that he would soon be signing the declaration of emergency in the country.
o Four hours before the emergency was to be declared, Sidhartha and Mrs Gandhi drove to the Rashtrapati Bhawan and explained to the president what the Emergency would entail.
o The President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed not once thought of denouncing or opposing the emergency mainly to show his gratitude towards Mrs Gandhi for having elevated him to the highest position in the country (as it was on Mrs.Gandhi’s behest that he had become the president).
o The proclamation of a state emergency was signed by the president, on 25 June at 11.45pm, fifteen minutes before when it was to begin.
o The proclamation stated that “A grave emergency exits whereby the security of India is threatened by internal disturbances”. It authorized the government to impose press censorship, suspend court proceedings and so on. It bore a strong resemblance to what the Germany underwent just a few years ago from then when Hitler prevailed upon the President to sign a decree “for the protection of the people and State, suspending sections of the constitution which guaranteed individual and civil liberties”.
o Ironically Indira Gandhi had not a few years ago stated that she would like to go down in history as a strong personality, much like Napoleon or Hitler because they would always be remembered.
During the Emergency
Political Imprisonment
o Leaders from all political parties except Congress & CPI were woken up at 3am in the morning and taken into custody at a police station close to the Parliament
o 676 prominent leaders were put behind bars that day even before the crack of dawn.
o Political Leaders were detained in Haryana on Bansi Lal’s request. “I have built a big modern jail in Rohtak”, he told Mrs. Gandhi
o Big names like JP, Morarji Desai, Ashok Mehta, Atal Behari Vajpayee, & Lal Krishan Advani were put behind bars under section 107 of IPC, a section regularly used to detain vagabonds.
o Signed blank warrants were prepared and kept in huge numbers to fill and use as the situation demanded.
Press Censorship
o No Delhi newspaper was published the day emergency was declared due to their power supplies being cut since midnight
o On June 26 censorship was imposed on all press writings regarding the emergency situation.
o Those that did not abide to the press censorship, and came out with uncensored newspapers either got their presses sealed or the power supply to their press cut indefinitely.
Constitutional Amendments
o The Constitution was amended to suit the prime minister's whims and fancies, laws were modified to overturn court orders
o Mrs Gandhi amended the Representation of Peoples Act and two other laws with retrospective effect to ensure that the Supreme Court is left with no option but to overturn the verdict of the Allahabad high court.
o The prime minister also took away from the apex court the authority to adjudicate election disputes relating to the president, the vice-president, the prime minister and the Lok Sabha speaker and transferred it to a body to be appointed by Parliament.
Forced Sterilization
o More than a million people were forcibly sterilised. People traveling in buses were forcibly taken out and sterilised.
o A very infamous incident in the same respect is when a chartered bus carrying professors for a seminar was diverted to a hospital and all the learned participants in the seminar were forced to undergo vasectomy despite their protest.
o Many women from villages fled to the hills for fear of the police carrying away people for sterilisation by force. There was a sense of terror throughout the country.
o It is said that the orders for forced vasectomy were given by Sanjay Gandhi.
Civil Disobedience
o The sikhs community came out strongly against the Indira government and launched a series of rallies & mass protests. The first mass protest in the country, known as the "Campaign to Save Democracy" was organized by the Akali Dal and launched in Amritsar, July 9.
o According to Amnesty International, 140,000 people had been arrested without trial during the twenty months of Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Of them, 40,000 had come from India's two percent Sikh minority
o RSS was banned soon after the declaration of the Emergency. But despite the ban it came out in large numbers to protest the Emergency rule. It was described by The Economist, London as the only non-left revolutionary force in the world.
Towards the end of tunnel
o On January 23, 1977, Indira Gandhi called fresh elections for March and released all political prisoners.
o Indira and Sanjay both lost their Lok Sabha seats, as did most of their loyal followers. Many Congress Party loyalists deserted Indira, who herself lost her constituency seat. The Congress was reduced to just 153 seats, 92 of which were from four of the southern states.
o The Janata Party's 295 seats (of a total 542) gave it only a slim majority, but opposition candidates together represented more than two-thirds of the Lok Sabha.
o Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.
o The emergency requiring renewal by the parliament every six months was renewed thrice before being finally called off
o Emergency officially ended on March 23, 1977
o In Indira’s own words, Emergency brought democracy “to a grinding halt”
