COCHIN: Reenactment of the infamous emergency was a possibility and only a vigilant press and an enlightened mass movement can resist it, Kerala Chief Minister, Mr. E.K. Nayanar warned here on Friday.
Mr. Naryanar was inaugurating the new press and office complex of Indian Express at Kaloor, Ernakulam. He made a pointed reference to the tendency of sections of the press to go after cheap trivialities and said that this would play into the hand of those who are afraid of a free press.
“How the powers that be in Delhi planned to fetter the Fourth Estate in a clumsy conspiracy was illustrated by the political effrontery with which a defamation bill was brought up, “The Chief Minister, reminded the audience. “Their intentions were evidently insidious they would have gotten away with it, stifling every note of dissent, but for a historic Nevolt against their move in every part of the country.
Without mincing words, Nayanar pointed out that spells of authoritarianism had been witnessed in India whenever the vested interests seemed endangered in the course of social and political events. “There was emergency when newspapers were gagged and public opinion smothered’ in every manner possible. How it was all accomplished is too painfully remembered even today to need recapitulation.”
Nayanar then cautioned that history could repeat itself despite the bitter lessons taught in the past. Who know, he said, whether India’s ruling elite which is gripped by a sense of insecurity today will not be averse to a reenactment of the dark drama of 197576 when power eventually begins to slip out of its hands?
“The abortive Defamation Bill ‘was evidence of what the ruling elite might be capable of doing in time of turmoil. A vigilant press and an enlightened mass movement alone can resist them,” Mr. Nayanar said.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 5, 1989
