Hyderabad: At midnight on June 25, 1975, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had declared a National Emergency across the country. Spanning for 21 months, the state of emergency was officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352(1) of the Constitution for "internal disturbance".
In this article, ETV Bharat traces the timeline of events that triggered the declaration that unleashed a sequence of controversial events.
What led to the emergency?
There were several factors and incidents which led to the emergency. The months preceding the declaration were fraught with economic troubles including unemployment, inflation and scarcity of food accompanied by widespread riots and agitations across the country.
Here are four major developments of the 1970s that played a catalytic role in the emergency declaration:
Navnirman Andolan in Gujarat
Between 1973 and March 1974, Gujarat witnessed massive protests initially led by students from the state over fee hike which was later joined by factory workers and others demanding the dismissal of the Congress-led state government over its "corrupt practices".
The protest came to be known as 'Navnirman movement' or the movement of regeneration.
By February 1974, the central government was forced to suspend the state Assembly and impose President's rule upon the state.
JP movement
In March 1974, a similar student protest erupted in Bihar led by Bihar Chatra Sangharsh Samiti which received political support from Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, against the Bihar government.
It was the involvement of this freedom fighter that the movement which was earlier known as "Bihar movement" eventually came to be known as "JP movement".
JP called for "total revolution," asking students, peasants, and labour unions to non-violently transform Indian society. He also demanded the dissolution of the state government, but this was not accepted by the Centre.
The movement ultimately led to Gandhi denouncing the JP movement as being "extra-parliamentary" and challenging JP to face her in the general elections scheduled to be held in March 1976.
The Railways' agitation
May 1974 saw a railways strike led by socialist leader George Fernandes which resulted in the disruption of goods and public movement across the country. The strike which lasted around three weeks saw the participation of over a million railway employees, writes historian Ramachandra Guha in his book, ‘India after Gandhi.’
The movement was crushed by the Centre by making thousands of arrests and driving several railway employees and their families out of their respective quarters.
Allahabad High Court verdict
The final nail in the coffin was when Raj Narain, a socialist leader, accused Indira Gandhi of corrupt electoral practices and filed a case at the Allahabad High Court.
Narain had lost to Gandhi in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli, a Congress bastion-till date.
On June 12, 1975, Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court found Gandhi guilty and declared her 1971 parliamentary election as null and void, unseating her from Lok Sabha seat, on the grounds that she had availed of the services of government officials while granting 20-days stay on his own verdict to enable her to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Gandhi challenged the High Court order in the apex court. On June 24, 1975, Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer of the Supreme Court put a conditional stay on the Allahabad High Court order allowing the PM to attend Parliament but barring her from voting unless the court pronounced on her appeal.
On the evening of June 25, 1975, JP, Morarji Desai, Raj Narain, Nanaji Deshmukh, Madan Lal Khurana, and several other political stalwarts addressed a mammoth crowd at Ram Lila Maidan, calling on Gandhi to resign. But she held on the prime ministerial position firmly.
JP made a fiery speech, reciting Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s poem, ‘Singhasan khaali karo/ janata aati hai (surrender your throne, for the people are coming)’.
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He exhorted the army and the police to not obey orders which they considered illegal and unconstitutional.
All these developments culminated into an ordinance that was drafted declaring a state of internal emergency and the President signed on it immediately.
In her letter to the President requesting the declaration of Emergency, Gandhi wrote, “Information has reached us that indicate imminent danger to the security of India.”
This was the third time in the history of Independent India that Emergency had been declared. It was introduced twice earlier - first in 1962 during the war with China and in 1971 when Indians fought a war with Pakistan, which led to the birth of Bangladesh.
The Emergency period
A large number of opposition leaders, including JP, Morarji Desai, George Fernandes, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitley, etc. were picked up from their residences and detained in a nationwide midnight swoop.
However, the most criticised aspect of the emergency was the censorship imposed on the country's Press thereby suppressing freedom of speech and expression.
Electricity supply to several newspapers was cut off on the night of June 25 to prevent them from reporting these developments.
The Gandhi government laid out certain rules and guidelines that were to be followed by journalists across the country. The Press was supposed to take permission from the Press Advisor before publishing anything.
Registering their protest, several newspapers published blank pages with Indian Express owned by Ram Nath Goenka leading the way. While most newspapers gave in to the pressure after a few weeks, Indian Express continued to remain an exception.
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Several other human rights violations were reported from the time, including a forced mass-sterilization campaign spearheaded by Sanjay Gandhi, the Prime Minister's son.
What followed the Emergency?
After revoking the Emergency on March 21, 1977, Indira Gandhi released Opposition leaders from prison and restored freedom of the press while calling for immediate elections.
A move that left the Congress party routed out and paved way for a Janata Party rule for a period of 21 months under the Prime Ministership of Morarji Desai.
In 1978, the Janata Party government replaced the words “internal disturbances” by the words “or armed rebellion” through the 44th Amendment of the constitution, and since then, there has been no further tinkering with this Article.
