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Indian Emergency of 1975-1977
Indian Emergency of 1975-1977
Political Background
Congress and the Rise of Indira Gandhi
Allahabad Conviction
Declaration of Emergency
Allahabad Conviction
Raj Narain, a socialist who was recently defeated by Indira Gandhi (two to
one) in the Rae Bareilly parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh,
submitted to the Allahabad High Court charges of corruption in the
election process against Mrs. Gandhi. In 1974, Jayaprakash Narayan, excongressman, ex-socialist began to organize a campaign in Bihar to oust
Indira Gandhi and her congress party from office on charges of corruption.
On June 12th, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High
Court, found the Prime Minister 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.
Some serious charges such as bribing voters and election malpractices
were dropped and she was held guilty on comparatively less important
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. Some of these charges were in
reality an essential part for the Prime Minister's Security protocol. In
addition, she was held responsible for misusing the government machinery
as a government employee. Because the court unseated her on
comparatively lesser charges, while being acquitted on more serious
charges, The Times of India described it as "firing the Prime Minister for
a traffic ticket." Strikes by labour and trade unions, student unions and
government unions swept across the country. Protests led by Raj Narayan
and Moraji Desai flooded the streets of Delhi close to the Parliament
building and the Prime Minister's residence.
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Declaration of Emergency
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 Iyer granted Indira Gandhi conditional stay. This decision gave
rise to outcries of opposition from the opposition that she should resign. Mrs.
Gandhi did not resign. On the evening of June 25th 1975, JP Narayan called
for a civil disobedience campaign to force the resignation of the Prime
Minister. In response, the authority of the maintenance of Internal Security
Act was used in the early hours of June 26th to arrest more than a hundred
people who opposed Mrs. Gandhi and her party. People arrested included JP
Narayan, Raj Narain, Jyortimoy Basu (communist party-marxist), Samar
Guha (president of the Jana Sangha). A proclamation of Emergency was
issued on June 26th by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on the advice of
Prime Minister Gandhi. The authority for calling the emergency was under
Article 352 of the Indian Constitution. Sunch an emergency can be called by
the President whenever he is satisfied that the security of India, or any part
of it has been threatened by war, external agression, or internal disturbance.
The actual occurrence of a disturbance is not necessary, only expected the
occurrence of a disturbance. Furthermore, under Article 352, the Courts may
not inquire into the validity of the grounds upon which emergency was called.
The powers given to the Central Government under this form of emergency
virtually have no limits.
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