My narrative won’t be complete without mentioning the

incarceration of George Fernandes who was put in to jail in

harsh condition along with his brother Lawrence Fernandes and
well known industrialist Viren Shah on charge of planning
violence against the state. The case was famously known as the
‘Baroda Conspiracy Case’. These people were alleged to have
conspired to use explosives to create terror and bring down the
government. Lawrence was so badly brutalised that he was a
physical and mental wreck by the time he was out of the jail and
died a sick man in 2005. George Fernandes was paraded around
in chains and these photographs were published in national
newspaper to scare potential rebels. This case closed after the
janata party came to power in 1977.
The press at that time behaved in very tame manner except for
some great exceptions like the brave owner of Indian express G
D Goenka and journalists like B G Varghese. The government
had clamped censorship on the press on the very day the
emergency was declared. Everything that were to be printed in
newspapers had to be vetted byan omnipotent censor committee.
The press brought up on license quota raj and newsprint doles
behaved more timidly than required. Commenting on it, L K
Advani had famously remarked, it crawled when it was asked to
bend. We were thrilled and inspired by Mr Goenka, when he
chose to keep the editorial column blank as he couldn’t write
what he wanted to. The government then passed an order that
you cannot keep a column blank. But, the Indian Express
refused to crawl throughout the Emergency. It stood stoic
against the volley of arm twister initiated by the government.
Goenka was harassed and indicated under various laws. Then
there was a famous classified in the Times of India which
condoled the death of democracy in a coded manner. The only
way news could travel was through secrete meetings, rumours,
guarded telephone talks ( even the telephones were tapped ),
people travelling around to carry news or undertake various
activities. There were underground pamphlets which were
distributed surreptitiously