The new generation born during the last four / five decades did not have the direct bitter experience of the Draconian Emergency declared by the Indira Gandhi Government on 25th/ 26th June 1975. It is 42 years since the Emergency was declared.
The Indira Gandhi Government was under attack for its anti-people measures. The brutal suppression of the 22 days Railway strike in 1974 was an indication of what was to come. In between, the Allahabad High Court cancelled the election of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Parliament. And on another side, Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement started which grew in to an avalanche churning the entire country. Indira Gandhi did not see any way to meet this challenge and declared National Emergency in the midnight of 25th/26th June 1975, arresting all opposition leaders, trade union functionaries and others who were opposing the congress regime. BJP, CPI(M) and all other oppositions were the main targets.
The emergency prohibited and suppressed all kinds of protests and democratic rights of the people. The newspapers were gagged. Without screening by the government censors, no paper could be published. Meetings, demonstrations – all were prohibited.
I was in the train along with a few other comrades going to Delhi from Kerala to attend a Convention of the Central Government Employees and Workers to chalk out agitation programmes on the urgent demands of the workers. On alighting at New Delhi Railway Station we found that there were a large number of police personnel. There was complete silence and people spoke in hushed voices only. Some comrades from Delhi came to us and told that National Emergency has been declared by the Government and it is not safe to stay where our accommodation was arranged. We were taken to the residence of comrade Jyothirmoy Basu, CPI(M) leader and Member of Parliament at that time. He had already gone underground to escape arrest. After reaching there, our comrades told about the explosive situation under the draconian emergency. We were told not to go outside, to avoid arrest. Comrade Jyothirmoy Basu came in the night at about 03.00 AM or so, took out some dresses etc. and left through the back-door by which way he had come. However he was later arrested and jailed.
Next day I went to No.4, Ashoka Road,which was the bungalow allotted to Comrade A.K.Gopalan, M.P. I met Comrade Narikutty Mohanan there who was the Delhi correspondent of Deshabhimani. Incidentally at that time a call came from Ernakulam Exchange.There were no mobile phones at that time.Even STD was not available.Every trunk call was to be connected through Telephone Exchange only. It was fortunate that Comrade K.Prabhakaran, well known P and T leader called at that time. Since all press news were completely barred and communications through telephones and fax were all censured, there was no opportunity for Narikutty to give the latest report to the Deshabhimani in Kerala. When Prabhakaran contacted I asked him to connect Deshabhimani and Narikkutty gave detailed report about the declaration of emergency, the list of the arrested leaders and other information. And in the next day in Deshabhimani, all the news came with photoes of the arrested leaders and a strong editorial condemning Emergency. I was told later that Narikkutty was taken in to custody and questioned, but the police could not find how the news reached Ernakulam Deshabhimani, because there were no records of fax, trunk call etc.
On 28th I walked through Rafi Marg on the side of which is the Mavlankar Auditorium where the CGE convention was to be held. The entire area was cordoned and a large number of police were there.The convention was already banned and the leaders were compelled to cancel it. So the first taste of emergency for me was in Delhi only.
Later, so many leaders of CGE movement were arrested and put in jail till the end of emergency. Com. Prabhakaran was one among them. I was taken in to custody twice during the emergency and questioned a whole night, but was late released. The period of Emergency were black days for the entire country. No criticism of the government or the ruling party was allowed. It was a reign of terror. ‘India was Indira’ became the slogan of the sycophants. People were arrested and jailed without any reason. It was dictatorship. But resistance continued inside and outside.
By 1977, Indira Gandhi felt that the situation is under control and election can be held. But her calculation failed. In the 1977 General Elections, Congress was routed out. For the first time in India, a non-congress government came in to power consisting of almost all opposition parties which won with thumbing majority. The Shah Commission which was appointed to enquire in to the Emergency excesses gave a true picture of what the nation and the people suffered during the Emergency.
No Indian wants a recurrence of that draconian Emergency. But what happens at present gives a resemblance to the pre-Emergency days. RSS and Sangh Parivar with the full support of the government attacks the rights of the people to eat what they want, how to dress, whom to love, what to study etc. etc. The trend is similar to what happened in the early days of the Nazi rule under Adolph Hitler. Trade union rights are curtailed; Achieved benefits are taken away. Public Sector Units are sold for a song. Minorities are attacked under the open eyes of the authorities. Moves are afoot for the creation of a rightist Hindu Rashtra. The secular fabric of the nation is being torn and dark forces are trying to create communal tensions.
The National Emergency of the 1975-77 and its brutal suppression of people and their rights have not been forgotten. Nobody wants another or similar Emergency and attack against the people. Dark clouds are hovering over the sky. It is only through the determined mighty united struggle of the people that the recurrence of another Emergency can be avoided.
We learn from the past to defend our future!
