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Mainstream, VOL LI, No 39, September 14, 2013

Archival Work of Contemporary History

Sunday 15 September 2013, by Sagari Chhabra

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BOOK REVIEW

Emergency Retold by Kuldip Nayar; Konark Publishers, New Delhi, Seattle; first published: 1977; paperback edition: 2013, pages: 320.

Emergency Retold is a new edition of a book on the Emergency by the distinguished journalist and human rights activist, Kuldip Nayar. The book published by Konark Publications was released on June 26, the 38th anniversary of the Emergency, to an audience of journalists, authors and democratic rights activists at New Delhi’s India International Centre.

Kuldip Nayar was arrested under MISA (Maintenance Of Internal Security Act), kept in Tihar Jail, and only released on a writ of habeous corpus filed by his family. He then toured the country and kept an account of the darkest chapter of India’s democratic life. The book is a valuable document of the times and is an account by a prisoner of conscience of what actually happened. Nayar asks in his new preface: how does one explain the Emergency, imposed in 1975, to a new generation? It does not know what it meant. He goes on to write: “More than one lakh Opposition leaders and critics were detained without trial. The Cabinet gave post-facto sanction. The power came to rest in the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, an extra-constitutional authority.” He also writes that the institutions never got back their original vigour and sanctity. In other words, the very idea of India was derailed.

In the book, Nayar recounts how the Emer-gency came about and freely takes names in his characteristic, courageous, signature style. He recalls Justice Sinha of the Allahabad High Court had ruled Indira Gandhi guilty on the count of two corrupt practices during her election. After this she responded to the advice of Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, and her younger son, Sanjay, who did not hold any constitutional position nor any position within the party and was in fact involved in the setting up of his Maruti car factory. Nayar writes: “A vague plan for ‘doing something’ to silence the press and opponents of Mrs Gandhi had not only acquired a firm shape but also achieved constitutional sanction. ‘Internal Emergency’ was the cloak a lawyer had found for an action planned with dictatorial motives.”

Secrecy was paramount, no one had an inkling as to what was being planned, as the Opposition was busy preparing for the June 25 rally to be addressed by Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP. Nayar details that “Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Mrs Gandhi drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan four hours before the deadline.... The President understood the impli-cations quickly. He was also once a practising lawyer... He did not think of demurring. He was indebted to Mrs Gandhi for elevating him to the highest position in the country.” After returning from Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mrs Gandhi decided on a Cabinet meeting at 6 am, by then she knew that the arrests of JP, Morarji Desai and several hundreds were going according to the plan. On the morning of June 26, censorship was imposed on all press writings related to the internal situation. All messages had to be sent to the government for scrutiny.

Nayar records that after the mass arrests, there was almost no resistance and if there were any, they were ‘tackled’. A few leaders like George Fernandes, and Subramaniam Swami, Jana Sangh members went underground. Vidya Charan Shukla, who took over from I.K Gujral as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, reported that the censorship machinery was quickly getting into gear. Indira Gandhi thought that Parliament would certainly endorse the Emergency, thus refurbishing her international image; so she convened it on July 21, 1975. She also asked that the question-hour be given up.

The book has extracts of some of the leaders who spoke up against the Emergency: A.K. Gopalan (CPI-M), Mohan Dharia (Congress-I expelled), Era Sezhiyan, P.G Mavlankar, and S.A. Shamim. The CPI (Communist Party of India) gave full support to Mrs Gandhi, with Indrajit Gupta even stating that the proclamation of
the Emergency was justified and everybody supported it.

Tihar Jail alone, which at that time could house only 1200 persons, overflowed with more than 4000 people. However, a few newspapers like The Indian Express tried to stand up against censorship. The paper’s proprietor, Ram Nath Goenka, was threatened that his son and daughter-in-law would be interned under MISA and his chain of papers auctioned, if he did not acquiesce. The Statesman was punished for not publishing a sufficient number of photographs of Mrs Gandhi on the front page and was asked to submit all page proofs to the censors for approval. The pages would be cleared late, delaying the printing of the paper. Sanjay Gandhi was behind the demolition and razing of several slums including the demolition of the Turkman Gate locality, which was met by resistance. Later, a forcible sterilisation campaign—‘nasbandi’—also went into over-drive, aided by ‘a glamorous lady’, Rukhsana Sultana, who considered Sanjay Gandhi a ‘god’.

Emergency Retold also details the torture of Lawrence Fernandes who was picked up from his house in Bangalore, to find the whereabouts of his brother, George Fernandes. The book records his testimony: “There were ten policemen and they started giving me the works. Four lathis broke, one after the other as they directed blows to all parts of my body. I was writhing in pain on the floor...” Snehalata Reddy, an actress, was also arrested, and later released, she died.

Shanti Bhushan argued before the Supreme Court that the right to personal liberty was not a gift of the Constitution but a fundamental concept of democracy, which could not be suspended even by the Emergency. However, the Supreme Court ruled that in view of the President’s order of June 27, 1975, no person had any locus standi to move any writ petition to challenge the legality of a detention order and that the order amending MISA, to remove the requirement that a detenu must be informed the reason for his detention, was constitutionally valid. However, Justice H.R. Khanna in his minority ruling declared that no authority could suspend the High Court’s power to issue writs of habeous corpus. Even in times of Emergency the state had no power to deprive a person of his life and liberty. But this was a minority voice. The majority, Justices Ray, Beg, Chandrachud and Bhagwati, supported the order.

The book ends with the announcement of elections, Indira Gandhi’s obvious assumption that her party would win, and her historic defeat at the elections of 1977. The rest is history, but the real heroes were the people of India!

Kuldip Nayar’s Emergency Retold is a fearless account, which only Nayar, himself a prisoner of conscience, could write. It is a must for all libraries and should adorn the book-shelves of all people who love freedom and wish to know of a time when our civil liberties were summarily taken away. The book should become part of the curriculum of all universities in South Asia. But the publishers have done a disservice, by releasing a historic volume with so many typographical errors and mistakes, which a careful editor or even a proof-reader could easily have corrected. For instance, it is United News of India and not ‘Unitec’, roly-poly Dev Kant Barooah and not ‘rely-poly’ and so on. This book is an important, archival work of contemporary history and deserves better
treatment.

Sagari Chhabra is an author, film-director and social activist.

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