Emergency of 1975: The Political Intolerance which shook the Indian Democracy!

“The President of India has declared but there is nothing to be worried about, things are going to
be absolutely normal” was the statement made by then the honourable and India’s first women
Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi once the emergency was declared after the historic verdict of
Raj Narain vs. State of UP which brought Mrs. Gandhi’s political career in a vulnerable state.
This case was filed against the electoral malpractices by the Indian National Congress which was
proved and the general elections were held to be null and void where Mrs. Gandhi turned to be
victorious. The period is till date regarded as the darkest hour in the history of India post
independence not only by the media and jurists but also by the commoners who witnessed the
sufferings and tortures post imposition. This made the constitution hostile and principles of
democracy took a back seat and autocracy on the part of the government was evident. In these 73
years of Independent India’s history national emergency has been imposed only three times,
twice during the war of 1962 which was against China and then in 1971 that was the battle which
led the separation of East Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh. The third was in the year 1975
where according to Mrs. Gandhi a court’s verdict created internal disturbance. This also remarks
as one of most controversial move by any Prime Minister as the council and the cabinet not
informed about this decision. The Prime Minister was so agitated by the judiciary that she didn’t
bother to follow the constitutional procedure for the proclamation in its rightful manner. In order
to deal with the so-called “internal disturbance”, she decided to suppress the voices which rose
against her. The government banned dozens of political and non-political organisation which
could possibly be a critic of the emergency. Along with it a censorship on press was imposed,
fundamental rights guaranteed by Part III were suspended. The extent of malicious use of power
could be seen as within three hours of compliant to the President Dr. Fakkruddin Ahemad about
the disturbance, which in reality was protest against her electoral malpractice and celebration of
SC’s verdict which upheld Allahabad HC’s Raj Narain verdict, the electricity to all major
newspapers was cut and the political opposition arrested. The administration’s autocracy was
quite evident with the arrest and detention of political leaders like Morarji Desai, JP, Atal Vihar
Bajpai and others. Mrs. Gandhi’s sudden realisation of the law being two slow which could be
called as her loss of faith in the Constitution made her to pass an ordinance to bring in the 42 nd
Constitutional Amendment which was an attempt to change the letter and spirit of the
constitution. Another draconian move by the government was the forced sterilisation which
began in September 1976 in order to control the population growth. Again, the government tried
to impose their will in a brutal and undemocratic manner. So what can be deduced in this
overview is Mrs. Gandhi who’s regarded as the Iron Lady of India or the “Empress of India” as
defined by The Economist’s basically gave an anaesthesia to the Democratic principles and tried
to murder the constitution to cope with the internal disturbance which even if it existed, it was
because of her political malpractices and hunger for power. This suggests that it was Indira
Gandhi’s imposition of emergency which actually created an internal disturbance for which the
whole nation had to pay a huge price. Though she had to face a defeat in the 1977 general
elections by the Janta Party and its allied but enough damage was already done.