The President has proclaimed emergency.

This is
nothing to panic about.
It was a fine June morning in 1975. 26
th
June, 8am is to be exact. The ordinary Indian started his radio to
here the morning news maybe with a hot cup of tea, but what they heard was the voice of Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi addressing these exact words to the nation. That was when the nation knew that
for the past 8 hours they did not had any constitutional right, that Indias democracy was being withheld
for the time being.

In the history of India after independence no other event is merely as important as the internal
emergency. Here one must clarify for the readers that India was under external emergency from 1971,
which has effect on exports and foreign policy, but an internal emergency meant no fundamental rights
for the citizens. Just give a clear idea about the severity of the issue I would like to quote eminent lawyer
Shanti Bhushan who was one of the prominent figures opposing the emergency
The article 21 gives the citizen of India the right to live. When the internal
emergency was proclaimed based on article 352, the power given to the
citizen on article 21 of constitution stands withheld for the time being. Thus
those opposing the government no longer had the right to live.
If we look back, In 1971 Mrs. Gandhi was a national hero. Externally she has cut Pakistan down to a size,
and internally she has broken out of congress and still managed to get a majority both in centre and in
most states. Her then anti lobby in congress, the south syndicate could do nothing against her. So what
happened in 4 years that she had to declare emergency to stay in power. If I may quote The Dainik
Bhaskar, 3 Js. Janta, Judiciary and of course Jayprakash Narayan.
The emergency itself is quite a huge topic, and in this article I am trying only to cover the events that
lead to emergency, the prolonged effect it had in Indian politics are to be discussed later.


The Judiciary played a crucial role in this period. Now Indira Gandhi was the government in those days,
whatever she said was the governments decision. Some critics say President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was
her yes man. But the judiciary was posing serious challenges to Indira Gandhi and her government. We
must mention two such cases in our discussion.
The first of the two cases are the famous Kesavananda Bharati Vs the State of Kerala case. In
February 1970 Swami Sri Kesavananda Bharati Senior Pontiff and head of "Edneer Mutt" -
Hindu Mutt situated in Edneer, a village in Kasaragod District of Kerala, challenged
the Kerala government's attempts, under two state land reform acts, to impose restrictions on
the management of its property. Even though the hearings consumed five months, the outcome
would profoundly affect India's democratic processes.
It was the first and last time in the history of Supreme Court that a 13 member bench had given
a decision and stated that the though the Parliament has the power to make amendments in the
constitution, it does not have the power to change the Structure of the Constitution. Though
the judgment had little to do with Indira Gandhi, it halted her attempts to change the
constitution on issues like the Privy Purse issue.
The second case was a direct blow to Indira Gandhi. Raj Narain, a socialist who was defeated by
Indira Gandhi in the Rae Bareilly LS constituency, submitted to the Allahabad High Court charges
of corruption in the election process against Mrs. Gandhi. It was the first time a sitting PM had
to appear in front of the court. On June 12th, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad
High Court, found the PM guilty on the charge of misuse of government machinery for her
election campaign. The court declared her election "null and void" and unseated her from the
Lok Sabha.

The court also banned her from contesting in any election for an additional six years. She was
held guilty on charges such as building of a dais by state police and provision of electricity by the
state electricity department and height of the dais from which she addressed the campaign
rally.

The Times of India described her arrest as "firing the Prime Minister for a traffic ticket."
Justice Sinha stayed the operation of his judgment for 20 days allowing the Congress party to
elect a successor to the Prime Minister. Unable to find a competent successor, Mrs. Gandhi, on
June 23rd 1975 appealed for complete and absolute stay which would have permitted her to
be a voting Member of Parliament, as well as Prime Minister.

On June 24th 1975 Justice V R Krishna Iyer of the Supreme Court granted Indira Gandhi
conditional stay. This decision gave rise to outcries from the opposition that she should resign.
Mrs. Gandhi did not resign.
That was the Judiciarys role, but in response to the Supreme Court verdict on Kesavananda Bharati case
the government took the decision of superseding 3 judges to make A N Ray the chief justice of Supreme
Court after justice S M Sikris retirement. Intellectuals all around the country condemned the
governments decision and the most important character of emergency, Jayprakash Narayan returned to
mainstream politics.
India was struggling with poor economic situation and high inflation throughout Mrs. Gandhis first two
terms. There was tension brewing within and in 20
th
December 1973 students of L D Engineering
College, Ahmadabad started their protest on price rise and mess bill increase. This is called the
Navnirman Movement. Till now all these were isolated events, they did not affect the centre as there
was no leader in the country who could take on Mrs. Gandhi.
All that changed on 18
th
March 1974. The students of Bihar were protesting for their various demands
for quite a few days. Among the student leaders were Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar. On the 18
th

students were petitioning outside the assembly when police lathi charged. JP condemned the act and
the students got there leader.
JP addressed a student rally in Patna, where he called for Sampurn Kranti. The railway union strike led
by George Fernandes started at these times. This was the largest rail strike till date; more than 50000
employees got arrested. Protests were spreading like forest fire. It was as if everything was falling apart
for Indira Gandhi.
Mrs. Gandhi went on an all out attack against JP, targeting even his personal life. But it seems the more
she targeted him, the more opposition parties accepted JP as their leader. By mid 1974, this became a
fight of two larger than life personalities. Indira Gandhi was not only fighting JP, she was fighting anti
incumbency. It was becoming more and more difficult for her, but she kept on trying to suppress the
opposition. Political observers say by then the power centre has shifted, and in came the last most
important character of emergency, Sanjay Gandhi.
Some say Sanjay Gandhi was behind the barbaric and unconstitutional approach that the government
started taking for November 1974 onwards. Room for any discussion no longer persisted and it was
time for showdown. On 24
th
June 1975 Justice Iyer gave his verdict. On 25
th
June JP addressed a rally of 5
lakh people in Delhis Ramleela Maidan. The entire opposition with him on the stage. JP reached out to
the military and policy and asked them not to follow any command by superiors that were against their
values and conations. JP said he made the comment suspecting that the government would do
something it did within 10 hours. The government said the declared emergency for this particular
speech as it was clearly challenging the authority of the government and encouraging revolt. All that was
seen on ground was leaders including JP, Morarji Desai, Vajpayee were arrested and thrown in jail, and
all of a sudden there was utmost peace and order in the country. The peace lasted for the next 22
months but at the price of our democracy.