National Emergency 1975 : India's darkest days

By Boopathy - June 28, 2020

Hi Peeps !!! This is Boopathy.

In 1971, Indian and Pakistani armies clashed on the eastern and western fronts, the war came to end, after Eastern Command of Pakistani military signed the instrument of surrender. This made East Pakistan into a new nation called Bangladesh. For this, the then PM Indra Gandhi gave her full support and she gained the reputation for liberation and formation of new nation. It pushed her high to attain victory in the 1972 Lok Sabha elections.

But on the other side, it caused major defects in the country. Over eight million refugees from East Pakistan entered India during the Liberation war and put a heavy strain to our overburdened economy. Monsoons failed in 1972 to 1973, which lead to decline in production of food crops. Corruption, unemployment and famine dominated the country.

To fix this issue, the government started to decrease the salaries of government employees and also hiked the school fees.

This move infuriated the people, the Railway employees indulged in strike. And the students from Gujarat to Bihar went on protest against the government, which was later headed by Jayaprakash Narayan, a social activist. Several other opposition parties' leaders also went on protest for the then PM's resignation from office.

On the other side, the then PM's electoral rival, Raja Narayan filed a case against Indra Gandhi for election irregularities at Allahabad High Court. On 12th June 1975, Allahabad HC held Indra Gandhi as guilty in election malpractice. It invalidate Indra's election and disbarred her from office for 6 years.

On 20th June 1975, Indra went on appeal in Supreme Court against the judgement given by Allahabad HC. But, she did not get any satisfactory response. Instead, she got 20 days partial stay on High court order. On 25th June 1975, opposition parties launch protest seeking resignation. It was a checkmate for Indra Gandhi.

"A cunning woman is her own mistress because she confides in no one. She who deceives others anticipates deceit, and guards herself." She took matter into her own hands. She had a discussion with the then Law minister HR Gokule and West Bengal CM Siddharth. She insisted the then president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare National Emergency.

The then president signed for National Emergency on the night of 25th June 1975. The next day morning, it was communicated to the people by Indra Gandhi through AIR(All India Radio).

National Emergency is dealt under the Article - 352 of Constitution of India. It was borrowed from the Weminar Constitution Germany. National Emergency is proclaimed by the president of India whenever there is a threat to the security of India. It would be proclaimed on 3 grounds - war or external aggression and internal disturbance(earlier it was 'armed rebellion'). During this time, the Union government becomes the Supreme power and the state governments are under the control of the Union.

After the emergency was proclaimed, power supplies to the major Press offices were cut off for 2 days. The pre censorship was imposed on press to stop spreading of anti-governmental news. Nearly 1,11,000 people were arrested including opposition leaders and media people, under Maintenance of Internal Security Act,1971 to prevent offence.

Such Emergency lasted for 21 months from 1975 to 1977. India's democracy turned into autocracy. There was an atmosphere of fear and terror filled in the country. She justified that the emergency was to curb the threat of internal disturbance. But such threat was not to unity and integrity of country but to the Congress government and PM herself.

Many journalists claimed that the emergency was declared only to safeguard her office. Because if she was removed from the office as per the verdict of HC, then there would be some other person sitting on her post.

Several amendments were made in the constitution which reduced the powers of Supeme court and High courts. Such amendments also quashed the judgement given by Allahabad HC against her. Which made her to contest in the very next election. She lost to Raj Narayan at Rae Bareilly constituency on 1977. But, she came back as PM in the next election with great margin of votes.