Emergency Anniversary: ​​Indira Gandhi was scared to see the unity of the opposition, imposed emergency on the country

On 12 June 1975, the Allahabad High Court canceled the election of Indira Gandhi from Rae Bareilly. Indira Gandhi was shocked by this decision of the court. Students and youth agitated all over the country. When the Prime Minister has lost his membership, he has no moral right to continue in power in the country. Demonstrations started against Indira Gandhi across the country.

The Congress organized a massive rally on 20 June 1975. In this rally, Devkantbarua said, “Indira teri subah ki jai, teri sham ki jai, tere kaam ki jai, tere naam ki jai”. During her speech at the same public meeting, Indira Gandhi announced that she would not resign from the post of Prime Minister.

Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan said in front of a huge gathering at Ramlila Maidan on June 25, 1975, “All the opposing parties should unite for the benefit of the country, otherwise dictatorship will be established here and the public will be unhappy.” Nanaji Deshmukh, the secretary of the Lok Sangharsh Samiti, announced that meetings would be held in every village demanding the resignation of Indira Gandhi and Satyagraha would be held daily from June 29 in front of the President’s residence. The same evening, when thousands of people were returning from the huge public meeting at Ramlila Maidan, it was as if from every dust particle there was a demand that “the Prime Minister should resign and follow the tradition of a real republic.”

On the night of 25 June 1975, Emergency was imposed on the country. The whole country was shocked. India’s cherished political values ​​were under threat. Civil rights were strangled. Censorship was imposed on the media. The courts were made redundant. The crackdown on the leaders intensified in Delhi. Big leaders of the opposition, including Morarji Desai, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani were caught overnight and put in jail. Sangh’s Sarsanghchalak Balasaheb Deoras was taken prisoner at Nagpur station and taken to Yerwada Jail on 30th June itself. 500 Sanghchalaks, Karyawahs and workers were locked up in Yervada Jail along with Pujya Balasaheb Deoras. Balasaheb Deoras called before his arrest, “In this extraordinary situation, it is the responsibility of the volunteers not to lose their balance. The union was banned. As the time passed, the havoc of the government administration increased on the public. Government media were also misused a lot during emergency. All India Radio was ordered to broadcast Indira Gandhi’s speeches.

All types of communication system, such as newspapers-magazines, stage, postal service and elected legislatures were stopped. The question was who should organize the mass movement in this situation? Ultimately, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh raised the alarm against the Emergency. The workers of the Sangh worked with great intelligence and patience after suffering a lot in order to create an atmosphere against the Emergency in the entire society. The Sangh had its own network of shakhas across the country and could play this role. Since the beginning of the Sangh, it has never been dependent on the press or the platform for public contact. Therefore, the effect of stopping the communication media was on other parties, but it did not affect the Sangh at all. Its central decisions at the all-India level reach the villages through the levels of province, department, district and tehsil. When the Emergency was declared, the communication system of the Sangh ran smoothly. The houses of the union workers proved to be the greatest boon for the fabric of the underground movement and because of this the intelligence officers could not trace the exact whereabouts of the underground workers.

Rajju Bhaiya, Dr. Abaji Thatte, Balasaheb Bhide, Chamanlal ji, A. Rambhau Godbole, Sunder Singh Bhandari, Om Prakash Tyagi, Jagannath Rao Joshi, Dadasaheb Apte and Bapu Rao Moghe, many senior campaigners of the Sangh while living underground during the Emergency. migrated across the country to maintain the morale of the people.

In the anti-Emergency struggle, more than 1 lakh swayamsevaks did satyagraha and went to jail. Out of a total of 1,30,000 Satyagrahis who did Satyagraha during the Emergency, more than one lakh satyagrahis belonged to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Of the 30,000 people taken prisoner under MISA, more than 25,000 were volunteers of the Sangh. While many people of Congress ‘O’ and Samajwadi Party, which claim experience of satyagraha and jail filling, could not go. After Sangh, the number of Akali Dal was about 12 to 13 thousand. Even Baba Jaygurudev could send only three to four thousand people to jail. The number of leaders of the Socialist Party was very limited, yet they often quarreled with each other. Sangh workers mingled happily in the jails. Sangh shakhas were held regularly in all the jails in the morning and evening. There were programs for physical and intellectual. In the anti-Emergency struggle, 100 workers of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, mostly in prisons and some outside were sacrificed during the Emergency.

Achyutapatvardhan wrote, “I am glad to know that the workers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, like any other group of political resistance, work with enthusiasm and dedication, and fight against the fiendish regime that resorts to blatant repression and lies. He was ready to openly co-operate and co-operate with whoever was opposing him.

The courage and bravery with which the volunteers were running the movement in the face of police atrocities and brutality, even the Marxist Member of Parliament AK Gopalan was moved. He had said “there must be some high ideal which is giving him indomitable courage for such a heroic deed and for sacrifice”. (Indian Express June 9, 1979)

In 1977, Morarjidesai’s government constituted the Shah Commission on 28 May 1977, headed by Justice C. Shah, to find out the various kinds of excesses during the Emergency. After examining all the aspects, the Shah Commission said in its report that at the time when the emergency was declared, neither the economic condition of the country was bad nor there was any problem in law and order.

During the period of emergency, the arrest of leaders on such a large scale took place for the first time in the country after independence. Beggars were forcibly sterilised; auto rickshaw drivers had to show vasectomy certificates for renewal of their driving licences.

Narendra Bhadoria, a senior journalist who worked during the Emergency, writes in his book Tanashahi that “during the period of German dictator Hitler, about 1.5 million people were forcibly castrated, while Indira Gandhi during her 21-month dictatorship had five times the number of people.” Men and women) were made impotent. During Indira’s time this number was more than 60 lakhs. How unfortunate that the cognizance of the tragic events of the Emergency was either taken lightly or pushed into the pit of oblivion.

When the whole country was fighting against the Emergency, the Communists were saying yes to the Congress. The CPI saw and welcomed the Emergency as an opportunity. The CPI leaders believed that they could convert the Emergency into a communist revolution. The CPI supported the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi at the 11th Bathinda Congress.

Dictatorship cannot run in India. The public mind of India cannot tolerate the murder of democracy. Whenever India’s cultural and democratic values ​​have been attacked, the people of India have always stood up to fight against that injustice and tyranny.

– Brijanandan Raju

(The author is associated with journalism.)

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.