Mass Media during

emergency
Emergency in India was imposed by President
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under article 352(1) of the constitution
for Internal disturbances after he was suggested to do so
by the then Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi on 25 th June,
1975. The basic civil liberties of the people were scrubbed
and extraordinary powers were bestowed on certain
individuals such as the Prime Minister. The mass media,
especially press, was heavily censored and many opposition
leaders and eminent personalities were arrested and
imprisoned. The emergency lasted for 21 months and was
ended on 23rd March 1977 by the Prime Minister and fresh
elections were called for. Then, a new government headed by
Moraji Desai came to power on the promises of restoring civil
liberties and freedom of the press.
In this paper, I would like to discuss reasons for
imposing emergency, Indira Gandhis methods of controlling
the mass media and the plight of a few journalists and
newspapers who stood up to her.
Media is usually referred to as the fourth estate in
democracy. It plays a pivotal role on how we form our
opinions and how we see the world. Also, it is often said that
the most important facet of democracy is an informed public.
The media plays a tremendous role in keeping the public
informed on things that matter such as policy issues or recent
government ordinances. It also plays a key role in exposing
various scams and excesses of power. As most of our
information and opinions are from the media, controlling the
media has direct bearing on controlling the minds of the
public. Many dictatorial and autocratic regimes have lasted

solely by controlling and influencing the thought processes of

the public.
In a similar vein, Indira Gandhi also imposed
severe restrictions and censorships on the media during the
emergency imposed by her. The Indian mass media has never
quite recovered fully from the emergency era blow to their
independence and freedom.

Reasons for Emergency:

It all started with a complaint from a lawyer, Raj
Narain, who contested against Indira Gandhi in Allahabad
constituency during the 1971 general elections. He lost by
more than a lakh votes. His complaint alleged that Indira
Gandhi used official machinery for her campaign in violation
to the election code. A case was then registered in the
Allahabad high court and on June 12 th 1975, Justice Sinha
gave his verdict on the case. He found her guilty of two
corrupt practices. The first was that she used Yashpal Kapoor,
officer on special duty in PMO to further her election
prospects. The other one was that she used government
officials to construct the stage from which she gave her
speeches; and they also arranged for loudspeakers and
electricity to feed them.
Mrs. Gandhis election to the Lok Sabha was
found void and she was barred from contesting elections for 6
years. But Sinha gave a stay of 20 days on his judgement. So,
that gave a leeway time for Indira Gandhi and she didnt have
to step down as the Prime Minister immediately. All her
advisors, ministers and top officials have gathered at her
home. Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhis younger son was
completely against the idea of her stepping down, even for a
day. They have finally decided to appeal the verdict in
Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly

known as JP, a Gandhian freedom fighter has been fighting
against the growing corruption in the country for about 3
years. He considered Indira Gandhi as the root of corruption
in the prevalent political scenario. After the Allahabad high
court judgement, he publicly started demanding her
resignation and said that her reluctance to let go of the
power is against the core of human values. All the opposition
parties, barring CPI, which supports Moscow demanded her
immediate resignation. They threatened to sit on a dharna to
achieve the same.
Indira Gandhi has started to consolidate support
for her leadership within the party before the Supreme Court
verdict. Sanjay Gandhi, though, started making preparations
in case the Supreme Court verdict turned out to be against
her. The word emergency was not used but some action
against the press and opposition was mentioned to the
trustworthy men in the bureaucracy and government. Mrs.
Gandhi has by then decided to stay on as PM, irrespective of
the Supreme Court verdict.
All the opposition parties, barring CPI came
under one umbrella with JP as their spiritual guide and have
prepared for a massive campaign on 25th June. Sanjay Gandhi
was waiting for something treasonous to be said at this rally
so that he can pounce on the chance. And obliging him, JP
has appealed to the police and military not to obey any
illegal orders and to follow their moral conscience.
For Sanjay Gandhi, Mrs. Indira and their lackeys
requesting the police and military to disobey direct orders
was the best weapon against JP they could get. Now they said
that JP and the other leaders were fomenting trouble among
armed forces; and that was something treasonable. So, Mrs.
Gandhi met with the President and explained the need for

declaring an emergency to quell these internal disturbances

and the president obliged. Thus, on 25 th June midnight, the
darkest period in the history of free India started. The
Supreme Court verdict was never announced.

Immediate steps:
As soon as the emergency decree came into
effect, the police and the intelligence agents made arrests of
many of the prominent opposition leaders and other people
who were non favorable to the government under MISA
(Maintenance of Internal Security) Act, the same act under
which smugglers were arrested. A few of the arrested people
included the likes of JP, Moraji Desai, Ashok Mehta,
Congress(O) president, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani. Many
of the Delhi newspapers could not be published the next day
because the power to the so called press lane, where many of
the prominent newspapers presses lie was cut off and was
restored only in the morning. The Statesman and The
Hindusthan Times came out because power was supplied to
them by municipality. But, in many of the other cities the
papers came out.
Indira Gandhi gave a nationwide broadcast on
the All India Radio on 26th morning. She defended the need to
impose emergency and said that she was forced to act
because of the deep and widespread conspiracy, which has
been brewing since I began introducing certain progressive
measures of benefit to the common man and common
woman of India in the name of democracy. The plot sought to
negate the very functioning of democracy. The common
people in the country were yet to fully comprehend the
complete implications of the established emergency and the
government sought to keep it that way by keeping any article

which was critical of emergency or Indira Gandhi under

wraps.
On 26 th June morning, censorship was applied
to all the articles relating to internal emergency. All messages
were to be passed through government appointed censors
first. Motherland, the Jana Sangh paper, was the only paper
that released a morning edition on 26 th. Its press was later
sealed. Unlike in the American Constitution, the freedom of
the press is not explicitly mentioned in the Indian
Constitution. It is just assumed as a fundamental right. The
Indian Constitution also allows for limitations on various types
of freedom. It gives states the freedom to curb the freedom
of speech in the interest of security of the state. With
accordance to this law, the states were encouraged to
impose strict censorship. Vidya Charan Shukla took over from
I.K.Gujral as the Information and Broadcasting Minister on
28th June.
Mass Media in India at the time consisted of
Television, Radio and the press. Television was still a novelty
at the time and only a few people had them. The only
national channel that would broadcast on it was the
government sponsored and controlled Dooradarshan. During
emergency, Dooradarshan used to run programs excessively
pandering to Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, the
apparent heir Many Bollywood stars and singers were roped
in to make propaganda films for the government. Those who
refused to do so were punished in different ways. For
example, Kishore Kumar, a popular singer at the time refused
to sing at a major musical function organized by the I&B
Ministry. This created a big wave and all the major dailies
flashed this news and caused embarrassment to the
government. So, his songs were banned from being played on
the All India Radio. Radio was also government controlled and

it was effectively used in government propaganda. There was

only AIR broadcasting on medium wave channel in Hindi,
English and all the state languages. BBC was the only place
where you could hear uncensored news about India and they
wouldnt cover much of it.
That leaves just the press. Nearly 200 foreign
correspondents licenses were revoked and they were
deported to their countries. Press guidelines were issued and
it barred the press from publication of unauthorized,
irresponsible or demoralizing news items, reports, conjectures
or rumors. All cartoons, photographs and articles likely to
come under the purview of censorship were to be submitted
for censorship. Foreign newspapers carrying unfavorable
articles were banned entry. Officials were assigned to the
news agencies so that they can cross out any objectionable
material or source. Only a few newspapers like The
Statesman and The Indian Express have stood up to the
government and tried to defy the censors. The Indian
Express, on 28th June has left its editorial section empty in a
protest to the censorship imposed. This manner of protest
was very common under the British rule of India against
censorship. This irked VC Shukla and he has threatened to
arrest the editors if that were repeated.

Methods of controlling the press:

The Prevention of Publication of Objectionable
Matter act was used by the British to impose censorship
before independence. That act was brought back through an
ordinance to stop the publication of words, signs or visible
representation which bring into hatred or contempt or
excite disaffection towards the government established by
law in India or in any state thereof and thereby cause or tend

to cause public disorder. Under the same act, during British

Raj, any person publishing objectionable material could be
arraigned by a judge and be ruled by a special jury consisting
of persons in journalism or public affairs. The government
then withdrew the accreditation of 40 plus newspaper
correspondents. They still could represent their papers, but
all the privileges such as admission to major news
conferences and Parliament sessions was withdrawn.
The government also used various other
methods to control the press. The main of those are:
Allocation of Government advertising
Merger of news agencies and
Use of force and intimidation on publishers, editors and
all parties involved.
At the time, the Indian newspapers were heavily
reliant on government advertising. The government was the
biggest advertiser for many of the newspapers. Many small
newspapers were dependent on those advertisements for
their very survival. Unfortunately, this made them open to
pressure and manipulation by the government. So, many of
the small newspapers gave up the fight. They have accepted
the government imposed censors and some newspapers have
even started writing in support of the emergency. Only the
big newspapers like The Indian Express and The Statesman
refused to abide by the government censorship. So, the
government stopped all advertisements to these papers
effective immediately. A secret circular was also passed by
Shukla to all public undertakings and autonomous bodies to
stop advertising to The Indian Express. The estimated loss
due to this to the paper was around 10-15 lakh rupees per
month. Later on, this method was used on any newspaper
that refused to toe the line.

The second way was by merger of privatelyowned news agencies. Two big English news agencies, The
Press trust of India and the United News of India and two
Hindi news agencies, Hindusthan Samachar and Samachar
Bharati were to be merged into a single news agency, called
Samachar. This was because, that way there would be only
one point of control and it becomes easier for the
government to control them. The Government used various
tactics to successfully effect the merger. Pressure was put on
the board members of all the agencies. Then, the
government threatened to stop the subscription of All India
Radio, which was a substantial source of income for them.
Finally, the government threatened to cut off the tele-printer
services, which was the lifeline of a news agency. The whole
process was very precisely and clinically done.
Even after all this, a few newspapers like the
Indian Express still refused to fall in line. So, the government
hatched up a plan to buy it. Ramnath Goenka, the proprietor
of The Indian Express was a brave and hard man. He brought
the newspaper to such heights from the ground after he
started by sheer will. For him, losing the company that he
started was not an option. He tried to stall by asking for time.
When the government remained stubborn, he agreed to sell
it, but under one condition. That he should get a fair price for
it and it should be completely white money. He knew that was
not going to happen. So, the government decided to control
the 13 member Board of Directors instead. They planned to
change the board of directors and their first task was to be to
remove he editor-in-chief Mulgaokar, showing his age as a
reason. But, Ramnath Goenka somehow averted it. Then, he
was threatened that if he continued to resist, he, his son and
his daughter in law would be put behind bars under MISA and
his paper auctioned. He then had to make peace by changing
the board of directors.

The Stateman was pulled up for not publishing

sufficient number of photos of Indira Gandhi on the main
page. The newspaper was then ordered to submit all page
proofs to the censor for their approval. The approval would
only come through after 8 A.M, much later than the bed time
of the newspaper so that the printing would be late and the
publication would suffer. Any newspaper that was starting to
become troublesome or critical of the emergency was dealt
with in similar or more creative ways.
Two English journals, the weekly Opinion and the
monthly Seminar were critical of the emergency, The Opinion
was ordered to be shut down by the Maharashtra
Government because it violated the Publication of
Objectionable Matter act and censorship rules. Seminar, on
the other hand decided to voluntarily stop publication after it
rejected to follow the censors imposed by the Government.
Rajesh Thapar, the editor wrote in his final edition that the
Seminar cannot surrender the integrity and right of free
expression this way. Not even a single newspaper reported
the closing down of Opinion and Seminar. Pancha Janya, a
weekly, Tarun Bharat, a daily, and Rashtra Dharna, a Hindi
monthly-a group of Hindi publications of the Jana Sangh were
closed down. The police entered the premises without any
notice or warrant and physically pushed all the employees
outside and sealed the press. The editors couldnt find any
lawyers willing to take up their case because they were all
afraid.
Due to the lack of uncensored information,
people started making up rumors against the government
and a few of them have started to go viral. The government
tried to curb this by using autocratic methods like installing
huge billboards at busy intersections advising people to stop
the rumor mill and get busy doing productive work instead. In

addition to this, a few government advertisements featuring

the same message was also put on television and movie
theatres.
Now when we look back at the strict
censorship that existed during the time, the thing that
matters the most is the lack of information about things that
mattered, not only to the general public of the time, but also
historians or people looking to do some research into it. The
government was accused of many crimes like forced
sterilization and plowing down the slums etc. Also, any form
of protest was curbed in the beginning itself using the
draconian MISA act. Now, there isnt much literature available
to analyze all these allegations.

Dissolution of Emergency:
Mrs. Indira Gandhi, on 18th January, 1977
has released many of the political prisoners unconditionally.
She has also informed the people about her decision to
conduct elections in March. Almost everyone were shocked
by her sudden decision to call for elections when her hold on
power almost perfect. The Emergency was not completely
lifted in any case, it was just relaxed. Vary theories have
come up on why Indira Gandhi called for elections. Many
believe that she got reports from the Intelligence Bureau
claiming that the emergency has improved the lifestyle of
people a great deal and the general public were grateful to
her for that. She also sanctioned various polls and those polls
suggested that if she were to go to elections immediately,
she would get no less than 320+ seats. Sanjay Gandhi, Bansi
Lal and many of the MPs were against going to the polls
immediately. But Sanjay Gandhi was adamant, having
achieved success by conducting flash polls before in her
career. But, she has now lost touch with the public and placed

her faith on reports made by a bunch of sycophants and she

ultimately paid the price for it.
The opposition leaders were released, but
their most popular and active cadre still remained in jail. The
press censorship was also not completely lifted. The
Publication of Objectionable Matter Act still hanged over their
heads. With so little time to organize the cadre and hold
rallies for the just released leaders, Congress was confident
of its winning chances. So, the opposition parties have asked
JP for his help. He agreed under the condition that there
should be a single united opposition. He felt that was the only
chance to defeat Congress. The Janata Party was formally
launched on 23rd January bringing together a mix of
ideologies, personalities and conflicting interests. At that
point of time, none of those differences mattered. Their only
aim was to defeat Indira Gandhi.
The Janata Partys talking point was to ask
people to choose between democracy and dictatorship. The
people were also constantly reminded of the forced
vasectomies, sudden arrests and all such things.
The Congress was decimated in the elections and especially
in the northern states. It managed to get 153 seats but lost
all seats in UP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. The Janata
Party and its all CFD won an astounding 298 seats. The
Janata Party came to power against huge odds and on the
promises of restoring freedom. It was the first time in
Independent India that a party other than congress came to
power. Moraji Desai was elected as the Prime Minister by the
Janata Party. Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi have failed to
even win their own seats.

The Aftermath:

Immediately after coming to power, the

Moraji Desai government established a number of
committees to restore the freedom of mass media in India.
The Committees were:

To analyze the misuse of mass media during

emergency.
To assess converting Dooradarshan and AIR into
autonomous institutions.
To study the feasibility of restricting the news
agency, Samachar.

These committees suggested placing Dooradarshan and AIR

under single autonomous corporation called National
Broadcasting trust. It was also proposed that the Samachar
be divided into two separate news agencies, Shandesh in
English and Varta in Hindi. Also, a one man study by K. K. Das
strongly suggested that Indira Gandhis role in misuse of
censors, harassment of journalists and manipulation of mass
media agencies was a prominent one.