It was early 1977. The Emergency was in full swing. Indira was India and vice versa. The 20-point programme topped the national agenda. Buses were on time. Teachers and officials were unusually punctual to work. Many a goon went underground. And the rest were treated regally. The press was paralysed. Teachers were assigned the task of enrolling people for mass sterilisation. Not a day passed without some prominent leader being arrested in the North.
I was then studying in a renowned high school in Ilanji, a village panchayat close to Courtallam, the spa of South India. The political climate had its echo in school. Gomathy Nayagam, our history master, was instrumental in creating a silent wave against the Emergency in school. He did it clandestinely. The crux of the message was: Democracy was in peril. His rival in the campus was Esther, our English ma’am, a staunch supporter of the Nehru family. Unlike Nayagam master, she was outspoken.
She said Indira was a progressive leader and that retrograde and anti-national elements have joined hands against her.To everybody’s surprise, elections were announced. Campaigning was dull, as many leaders were contesting from behind bars. Nayagam sir was happy. He told me Indira’s defeat was a foregone conclusion and said he got this info from a reliable source, a banned outfit in Delhi.
Finally the elections were over. The D-Day came. The students were all listening to the special bulletin of All India Radio. Initially, the sweep by the Congress in the South was highlighted. However as day slowly turned into night, AIR finally picked up courage and announced the decimation of the Congress in the entire Hindi belt.
The next day, my friends and I were at the Shencottah bus stand on our way to school. Nayagam sir was there holding a bunch of dailies—Indian Express, Dinamani, Dinamalar—all announcing the Janata Party’s Himalayan victory. He was all smiles, as though he himself had made it to Parliament.
We rushed to school and wiped out the 20-point programme as a first step, a mob mentality. Our HM arrived at the spot and said: Parties might come and go, but good things done by them should remain for good. We dispersed and entered the class only to learn that we would be free during our first period—Esther ma’am was on medical leave.