EMERGENCY

THE DARKEST TIME OF INDIAN DEMOCRACY

Victory of Congress in International Scene:
1971 Lok Sabha Fear of CIA backed
Elections coup

Election Petition against

Indira Gandhi in All Indian Railways
Allahabad High Court Strike

Dec 1975:
Bangladesh Internal unrest in the
Liberation country
 Failure of
Monsoon

Low Rise in
Industrial unemploy
Production UNREST IN ment
THE
COUNTRY

Increase in Increasing
Corruption Poverty
 12 June ‘75: Allahbad HC Ruling- Indira’s win declared null

Indira dictated a letter of resignation. Typed but never signed.

24 June ‘75: Appeal in SC. Conditional stay on HC order.

25 June ‘75: ‘Total Revolution’ movement launched by JP

3:30 pm. 25 June: Sidharth Ray finds loophole in Constitution

Indira’s team prepares “Proclamation of Emergency”

5;30 pm. 25 June: Indira & Ray proceed to Presi’s residence

A list of opposition leaders to be arrested prepared, by the time they return.

PROCLAMATION OF
EMERGENCY
“In exercise of the powers
conferred by Clause 1 of
Article 352 of the Constitution
, I, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed,
President of India, by this
proclamation declare that a
grave emergency exists where
by the security of India is
threatened by internal
disturbance.”
WHAT DID EMERGENCY MEAN?
All fundamental rights of the citizens were
curtailed
Civil Liberties curbed
State and parliamentary elections were
postponed indefinitely
Country was ruled by the decree of the Indira
Gandhi Government
IMPACT OF EMERGENCY

Common
Man Media

Constitution Opposition
 IMPACT: THE MEDIA
 Severe censorship imposed on newspaper, television
and radio.
 The Press Council (which ensures freedom of the
press) was dissolved in December 1975.
 Reporters of The Economist and The Guardian left
after receiving threats. The BBC withdrew its
correspondent, Mark Tully.
 Kishore Kumar was banned by All India Radio after
his refusal to support the Youth Congress
 Newspapers and magazines had to get their pages
approved before they were printed
 press started covering civic issues and human interest
stories due to censorship
 BBC Radio only trustworthy source to know what
HOW MEDIA
REACTED
 IMPACT: THE OPPOSITION
 Opposition leaders arrested or detained. Namely, JP
Narayan, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, AB Vajpayee,
LK Advani, Raj Narain.
 Some leaders went underground, creating awareness
among people
 RSS & several other institutions was banned.
 MISA (Maintenance of internal Security Act) was
misused.
 Political deteneus and prisoners were beaten; some
tortured
 Dismissed more than 8 state governments on a single
day (29th April 1977) that were against Ms. Gandhi &
President’s Rule was ordered for.
IMPACT: THE CONSTITUTION
 The 38th to 42nd amendments were passed during the
Emergency.
 The 38th Amendment barred the judicial review of
Emergency.
 Amendment 39 allowed an Indian PM to ignore the
courts.
 The 41st Amendment said no criminal proceedings
“whatsoever” could lie against a President, PM or
Governor for acts before or during their terms of
office.
 The 42nd Amendment gave unrestrained powers to
Parliament to change the Constitution, and
invalidated the Supreme Court ruling that the
government couldn’t change the basic structure of the
 IMPACT: THE COMMON MAN
Over 140,000 people were detained without trial.
Forcible sterilization done on many people, in the
disguise of family planning.
Movie ‘Kissa Kursi Ka’ , a satire on politics
of Indira and Sanjay Gandhi, was banned by
Government.
The atmosphere of fear and oppression was
created.
The urban poor were at the receiving end of
Sanjay’s slum clearance drives.
 RISE OF SANJAY GANDHI
 Extra-constitutional center of authority
 Took charge of the administration & had complete
control over his mother
 Compulsory family planning programme set targets
for bureaucrats
 In an interview, admitted his plan was to indefinitely
extend emergency, get rid of democratic institutions
and establish Indira’s dictatorship for 20-30 years more
 Initiated “Slum cleanup” project in which hundreds of
slums were ruthlessly demolished, without making
sufficient alternate arrangement, in the name of
planned development.. The Turkman Gate Slum.
GOOD EFFECTS OF EMERGENCY
Ministers made surprise visits to their
departments to see how things were working out
The timing of the employees reporting at work
was closely monitored.
Trains ran on time
Officials who didn't have a reputation at work
were asked to retire at 50
Prices of food grains came down.
 THE LEGACY
No one knew it’d be so easy to silence the
Democracy.
Democracy turned into dictatorship
How easily Constitution could be changed as per
personal desires
A wave started to change democratically strong
bureaucrats and leaders with loyal although
incapable people