NEW DELHI:Jayaprakash Narayan’s—popularly known as JP—famous address at the opposition rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on June 25, 1975, urging the police and the military to disregard unconstitutional and immoral orders, was one of the main justifications forwarded by the Indira Gandhi administration to invoke Article 352(1)—“internal disturbance”—declaring the draconian ‘Emergency’ the very same night, suspending the civil rights of the citizens.
But actually the decision was taken, tacit support from political and a certain international quarters were obtained the preceding evening.
According to an eyewitness account given to The Sunday Standard, Indira Gandhi came to visit CPI veteran Bhupesh Gupta at his 5 Feroze Shah Road residence late in the evening. Gupta was her close associate and a Rajya Sabha member for an uninterrupted 29 years.
It’s a matter of history that the CPI had supported Indira Gandhi and the Congress during the Emergency. “She appeared quite suddenly in a rundown cream coloured Fiat car to avoid detection. We had gathered at Bhupesh babu’s bungalow a little earlier to cook dinner,’’ recounts Purabi Roy, historian and prominent Russian language expert who is known internationally for unearthing much material from Soviet archives, right after the USSR’s collapse.
Purabi’s husband, Kalyan Roy, was a sitting CPI MP and Gupta’s sprawling bungalow, which served as a mini commune of sorts, was where the comrades congregated quite often, especially during Parliament sessions.
“Indira walked in, not her usual imperious self, but looking a bit strained. The two of them, Bhupesh babu and Indira, went in, and their meeting lasted for nearly three hours,” says Purabi.
After a point, the doors were shut. But Gupta came out to ask Kalyan and Pratul Lahiri, who were sitting outside, to go to the back of the house. “He once more checked where we were and informed us ‘it’s going take time’,’’ Purabi recounts.
It was a day later when the Emergency was declared and the CPI decided to support her decision, the reason for the Indira-Gupta meeting became apparent to all present. Purabi admits the apprehensions set in pretty fast.
On his part, Gupta later shared with the Roys one more reason for Indira’s visit—primarily to give certain instructions to Kalyan. This was at their MP quarters in North Avenue. “It began with my telling him, I knew why it took them so much time and why he had to shut the door so firmly. (Russian President Leonid) Brezhnev had to be taken on board. He looked up sharply and could not deny it,” Purabi adds, and apart from the “internal disturbances’’, the fleet build-up in the Bay of Bengal was also cited to secure the tacit support of the Soviet leadership.
During the Bangladesh war in 1971, the advance of the US aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and USS Tripoli towards Indian waters were countered, also by using Soviet and ‘friendly’ Britain’s back-up. CPI leaders with deep contacts in the Soviet Union, who were basically products of the Communist Party of Great Britain, played a crucial role.
Gupta’s close friendship with Indira and her husband Feroze Gandhi from the trio’s days in England is part of New Delhi’s political folklore. It was Gupta who took Indira to meet a dying Feroze in Wellingdon Hospital, recounts Purabi.
The two remained friends till Gupta’s death in Moscow in 1981. “Indira came to Ajay Bhavan when his body was brought back,” remembers CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy. However, Reddy is defensive about any support that Gupta may have garnered for Indira during the Emergency. S A Dange was the CPI chairman when the party decided to support the Congress. “We apologised to the nation and regretted our mistake. There’s a party resolution to that effect,’’ Reddy adds.
Gupta’s was a legendary open house where many political stalwarts—from Indira Gandhi to Biju Patnaik—walked in and out, taking advice and stitching and unstitching political alliances, remembers Sumit Chakravartty, Editor, Mainstream weekly.
His late father, Nikhil Chakravartty, would later try to get the two Communist Parties reunited during the Emergency. This was when Sanjay Gandhi’s goons were cracking down on both, particularly the CPI(M). The secret meeting took place in Chennai’s Dasaprakash Hotel.
Admits CPI veteran A B Bardhan, “That they (Indira and Gupta) were friends is a known fact. At that time, we were worried about communal flare-up and internal and external disturbances. Within six months, we realised our mistake. Horrible atrocities were being perpetrated. We later withdrew support. In fact, Bhupesh babu was the one who coined the term ‘extra constitutional authority’ for Sanjay Gandhi.”
No sooner had the Emergency been declared, it became evident that Sanjay was the real power centre and his apathy towards the Communists were quite apparent. To the CPI’s horror, despite the support it lent the Congress—which turned out to be unpopular—the party’s top leaders found their names on Sanjay’s hit-list. The list, apparently, was leaked to them by none other than Indira Gandhi herself.