Rahul Gandhi, the former president of the Congress and a key member of the Nehru-Gandhi family that owns and controls that party, has belatedly acknowledged that the imposition of the dreaded Emergency by PM Indira Gandhi in the mid-1970s was “a mistake”. This grudging and half-hearted attempt to face the truth is unlikely to wash away the monstrous impact of the Emergency or the sins that are associated with it.
Some observations made by Rahul in a recent interaction with an American university need closer scrutiny. He claims that while the imposition of the Emergency was wrong, the Congress did not and does not have the “capability” to capture institutions. “Even if we want to do it, we can’t do it,” he says. This needs to be tested on the anvil of truth because the dreaded Emergency, imposed on the night of 25 June 1975, turned a vibrant democracy into a fascist state.
Here is a synopsis of what became of our institutions after the proclamation was issued:
The President: The President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, was famously known as a “Rubber Stamp” President, who would sign everything that was sent up to him. The fateful decision to impose the Emergency did not have Cabinet approval, as required under Cabinet rules, but the President, having abdicated his responsibility, did not insist on it and signed the dreadful order just before midnight.
The Union Cabinet: The Cabinet was emasculated. Mrs Gandhi called the Union Cabinet at 6 am on June 26 to “inform” it of the development. There was not even a murmur. By then, word had gone round that she was putting all her political opponents in jail. No minister was willing to question her and exchange his ministerial bungalow in Lutyens Delhi for a bunker in Tihar Jail!
The Judiciary: The plight of the judiciary during the Indira Gandhi regime best explains the respect the Congress has for institutions. Mrs Gandhi had begun to display fascist tendencies even before June 1975. In April 1973, she superseded three Supreme Court Judges—Justices J M Shelat, K S Hegde and A N Grover and appointed Justice A N Ray as the Chief Justice of India. The three superseded judges were part of the 7-6 majority in the landmark Keshavananda Bharati case, in which the Supreme Court propounded the Basic Structure Doctrine and declared that while Parliament can amend the Constitution, it cannot alter or interfere with its basic structure. Our Constitution is still intact and all of us, including Rahul, breathe the free air because of this momentous decision of the court. But Mrs Gandhi detested such a strong pro-democracy court and announced the supersession a day after the judgment.
Thereafter, during the Emergency, her Attorney General, Niren De, argued in the famous Habeas Corpus Case that the citizens did not have the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, so long as the President’s order suspending fundamental rights, which followed the proclamation, was in vogue. Chief Justice Ray and three other judges—Justices M H Beg, P N Bhagawati, Y V Chandrachud, who succeeded him to the office of Chief Justice of India—went along with the government’s view. Only Justice Khanna dissented. While refusing to free the arrested political leaders in that case, Justice Beg had infamously declared that they had really no cause for complaint because they were “well-fed and well-treated” in jail and the government was taking care of them with “maternal instinct”. Sure enough, Mrs Gandhi, the source of the government’s “maternal instinct”, was so pleased that she superseded Justice Khanna and appointed Justice Beg as the Chief Justice! But of course, as Rahul says, the Congress does not know how to “capture” institutions!
The Parliament: The Parliament was another institution that was completely paralysed and devoid of conscience. It rubber-stamped some of the most horrendous amendments to the Constitution that robbed it of its soul. The 42nd Amendment was the most shameful. It sought to strangle the judiciary in more ways than one and hit at the root of the concept of judicial review, removed the requirement for quorum in Parliament proceedings and the worst of them all—gave the President the power to amend the Constitution through an executive order for two years!
The Press: The Indira government abhorred a free press. After the midnight of June 25-26, 1975, electricity was cut off on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, to prevent newspapers from hitting the streets the next morning. The Press Council was dissolved and thousands of independent journalists were jailed or hounded.
Democracy: The Indira government’s commitment to democracy is best explained by the fact that she jailed thousands of her political opponents across parties under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and other laws for 19 months. An officer—Navin Chawla—directed the Superintendent, Tihar Jail, to put political detenus in asbestos cells and the lunatics cell. The Shah Commission said that during the Emergency, “tyrants sprouted at all levels overnight”. It indicted Navin Chawla for being “authoritarian and callous” and declared that he was “unfit to hold any public office”.
The Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh combine appointed Chawla as Election Commissioner in 2005 and he went on to become the Chief Election Commissioner. Rahul says the Congress does not have the capability to capture institutions.
How credible is this statement in the light of the evidence in the preceding paragraphs?
A Surya Prakash
Former Chairman, Prasar Bharati and Scholar, Democracy Studies
(Surya Prakash is the author of ‘The Emergency: Indian Democracy’s Darkest Hour’)
(suryamedia@gmail.com)