Most of the communists and congress accuse Modi for undeclared emergency. But they won’t tell you what emergency is.
Emergency is when your fundamental rights are taken due to unforeseen circumstances. Undeclared emergency is when Govt can take away your fundamental rights without actually declaring emergency.And this happened in the Indira Gandhi regime right from day one.Most of us know only for her emergency from the year 1975 to 1977. But nobody knows that India was under undeclared emergency right from the time she assumed the office in 1966 after suspicious death of Lal Bahudur Shastri. Here is the brief timeline:
- SC in 1967: The Supreme court in a famous judgement in Golaknath case declared that Parliament cannot take away fundamental right of citizens[1].
- Indira in 1971: The woman took it on her ego, and changed the constitution (24th amendment) to declare that Parliament under her can take away fundamental rights of citizen. Her arrogance was so much that she was taking on the judiciary to declare herself the supreme leader[2].
- SC in 1973: It was under these circumstances that the Supreme court in the longest case in the history of Judiciary with the largest bench of 13 Judges declared that Parliament cannot change the “basic structure” of the constitution. However the SC also ruled that Govt can change the fundamental rights but with some restrictions. Apparently a palliative for Indira. The case is known as Keshawananda Bharti case[3]. The judgement was given with a narrow 7–6 margin. Perhaps a 13–0 or a 12–2 would have made her more angry.
But how would you stop a haughty PM who was hell bent on declaring India as her Jaagir. Inflation was at peak in 1970s. It was in those time the films like Zanjeer were released and the image of angry young man struck with Indian audience. India was in doldrums. But who would save India.
B.R Ambedkar once said these ingenious words
“Judiciary intervenes when executive fails in its constitutional duties”
And this is what happened. Judiciary stepped in.
In 1975, in the famous State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain case, Justice Jagmohan Sinha of the high court declared that Indira abused the Govt machinery for election campaign and barred her from power for 6 years.
But many were suspicious that the real reason for her ouster was her confrontation with judiciary. Times of India declared it like “Firing a PM on a traffic ticket”[4].
Indira was bound to be angry with this judicial whipping. And she went bonkers.
During those times article 352 used to read like this
National emergency can be declared on the basis of external aggression or internal disturbance.
She abused the meaning of the word “internal disturbance”(which and used it as a reason for emergency. She didn’t even find it necessary to take her cabinet ministers(which has been mandatory now) and went to her loyalist and president of India, Fakuruddin Ali who without raising a single question foisted “emergency on India”. “Internal disturbance” was later changed to “armed rebellion” with weapons by Janta govt in 1978 as a reason for emergency,so that no one in future can misinterpret.
And then we all know what happened in during the emergency. Entire opposition was arrested and some of them were falsely implicated in cases. Fundamental rights of the citizens were taken away. The dictator PM again changed the contitution apparently to take revenge from the judiciary. In the biggest single change to constitution 42nd constitutional amendment to over ride the Keshwavanada Bharti case and declared that Parliament under her can take away fundamental rights of citizens. The liberal or the leftist historians (e.g. Ramchandra Guha) tried to paint this massive change to Constitution as a”mini constitution”, as if she did something good.
But the revenge from Judiciary wasn’t over. She even fixed the supreme court and selected her stooge A.N Ray, as the Chief justice of India surpassing several seniors[5]. A.N ray was one of the judges who favored Gandhi in the Keshvanada bharti case. The Judge used to call her almost daily for instructions and it was said that even her secretary used to give him instructions.
People of India hate history. But if you don’t know history you are bound to make the same mistake again. The whole dynasty is such. Once Kishore Kumar declined to sing for her equally dictatorial son Sanjay, he asked the All India radio to stop playing his songs. His son Rajeev Gandhi went on to screw Indian economy to the point of collapsing. And her grand son, Rahul is all set to carry the legacy forward. Today her daughter in law, Sonia is trying to intimidate chief justice of India with impeachment. Don’t forget the women replaced India’s best president with Pratibha Patil who allegedly even cooked food for her.
In present time there is an entire army of communists and Islamists who abuse the current PM day in day out with impunity and still they call his regime as undeclared emergency. Imagine if somebody had dared to say the abusive words to Indira.
Footnotes
[1] I.C. Golaknath and Ors. vs State of Punjab and Anrs. – Wikipedia
[2] Twenty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India – Wikipedia
[3] Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala – Wikipedia
[4] Indian Emergency of 1975-1977
[5] A. N. Ray – Wikipedia
By
Gurbachan Singh