Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s suggestion that a chapter on the Emergency must be introduced in school textbooks should certainly be welcomed by all those who cherish our Constitution and our democratic way of life.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event held in Lucknow to mark the 41st anniversary of the imposition of the dreaded Emergency, where many “Loktantra Senanis” (those who fought against the Emergency) were felicitated, Mr Naqvi said that successive generations must be told about the atrocities that were committed during those terrible 19 months when democracy stood eclipsed in India.
He said 75 per cent of the country’s population was unaware of why and how emergency was imposed and what happened while it lasted. Schoolchildren should know the truth about this dark phase in India’s post-independence history, just as they learn about the freedom movement and about those who fought for India’s independence.
India came under a dictatorial regime after the Allahabad High Court unseated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in June, 1975 for indulging in corrupt electoral practices in her Lok Sabha constituency, Rae Bareli in the 1971 election. Mrs Gandhi however decided to defy the Constitution and democratic norms and remain in power, whatever the means. She fell back on a never-used provision in the Constitution, and imposed an “Internal Emergency”, which enabled her to introduce draconian laws, imprison all her political opponents and critics and unleash a reign of terror across the country. Gandhi’s Emergency regime crushed all the major institutions including the Parliament, the judiciary, the Executive and the media. Today’s generation needs to be told how the Constitution was mutilated and how every institution buckled under pressure. This will also educate young Indians on what actual “intolerance” is all about and also about the vulnerability of those who man these institutions to threats and inducements.
During this ugly period in the nation’s history, Parliament became a rubber stamp, and passed some of the most atrocious constitutional amendments. It began with the 38th Amendment that prohibited a judicial review of the emergency proclamation. The 39th Amendment barred the Supreme Court from hearing any petition against the election of the Prime Minister. The 41st Amendment went even further. It said no civil or criminal proceedings could be instituted against the Prime Minister for anything done by her before or after she entered office. In other words, the Prime Minister became a super citizen, who would be above the law.
Today’s high school children need to know that India once had a Prime Minister who put herself above everyone else. Then came the 42nd Amendment, many provisions of which would only bring utter shame to those who voted for it. As everyone is aware, Mrs Gandhi had a rubber stamp President called Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, who signed on the dotted line when she sent him the notification for imposition of the Emergency.
He did not even ask her how she could come to him with such a major proposal without getting the same cleared by her Cabinet. Assured of such a compliant President, Mrs Gandhi got Parliament to pass a provision which enabled the President to amend the Constitution through an execute order. Hitler and Mussolini got their Parliaments to empower them in this manner.
Those in school today must know Parliament and the President were made rubber stamps and how the judiciary and the media were stifled. Today’s generation must also know how, while on the one hand, Mrs Gandhi strangled the judiciary through these constitutional amendments, the judiciary, at very critical moments, let down the Constitution, the people and democracy itself.
Many judges buckled under pressure at that time and Shiv Kant Shukla v ADM (Additional District Magistrate), Jabalpur, also known as the Habeas Corpus Case, offers the best example. In this case, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld the Indira Gandhi government’s contention that during the Emergency, no citizen had the right to challenge his or her detention or to move a writ of habeas corpus.
This, after the Attorney General told the court that so long as the Emergency was on, no citizen could seek relief in a court of law, not even when a policeman shoots a citizen dead in the police station. Only one of the five judges — Justice HR Khanna — dissented. Justice Khanna, who was in line to become the Chief Justice of India, was superseded by Mrs Gandhi.
All the other four judges, who wrote a judgement that snuffed out a fundamental right given to citizens by the Constitution, became chief justices of the Supreme Court. The younger generation must be told that despite the terror that prevailed then, we had an extraordinary judge like Justice Khanna, who stood by the citizens’ fundamental right, unmindful of its implications for his career. “Mrs Gandhi’s dictatorship, both in its personalised and institutionalised forms is now complete”, Jayaprakash Narayan declared woefully, when he heard the Supreme Court verdict in this case.
Similarly, the younger generation must be told of the journalists, writers, artists etc who stood up to the brutal regime, went to jail and faced many travails, so that democracy may return. As many as 1,11,000 persons were detained under MISA and the Defence of India Rule, the dreaded laws which were used to intimidate citizens. That is why the fight against Indira Gandhi’s Emergency is called the Second Freedom Struggle. Children who learn of the heroic deeds of many of those who fought against Indira Gandhi’s dictatorship, will be inspired to stand up for their freedoms.
A Surya Prakash is Chairperson of Prasar Bharati
Email: suryamedia@gmail.com