India this week celebrated the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of Emergency by the late Mrs, Indira Gandhi, through that extraordinary measure, the then prime minister had suspended basic democratic rights and had imprisoned about. 166,000 political activists including the Gandhian Jaiprakash Narayan and Moraji Desai. This regime continued ‘until March 20, 1977, when Indira Gandhi ordered elections which she lost. Political leaders, belonging to non-Congress (I) parties and the ‘media remembered the episode through statements and articles.
Leading civil rights activists, N:A. Palkhivala, posed and answered the question whether that kind ‘of draconian situation could stage a comeack. Parkhivala says that there could be another emergency in India because its society is feudal and caste ridden, India, he says, is a great nation in a state of moral decay. The noble processes of the Indian ‘constitution have been trivialized by the power holders, he argues. Palkhivala further says that there is a lack of sense of justice and fair play as well as moderation and tolerance, No wonder, he notes, Rajiv: Gandhi could publicly state that he would not hesitate to repose emergency if the circumstances demanded such a measure. Justice V.M. Tarkunde has written in a similar manner to express the fear that there is talk of imposing a presidential form of government even as the country is moving towards political uncertainty and the parliamentary election is due in April next year. “The experience everywhere in the third world has been that Presidents always turn dictators,” he notes.
The media has recalled a statement by S.B. Chavan, who, in 1375 headed the Maharashtra state government for the ruling party, he said then that ‘the Indian opposition leaders (who had been sent to jail) should thank their stars that they had been born in India and not elsewhere. Otherwise, they would have been shot and not merely imprisoned.’ The man today is India’s home minister; The newspapers also mentioned a statement by S. S. Ray pleading for folding up all high courts in the country. Incidentally, Ray is known to have been the architect of the proclamation of emergency for Indira Gandhi, He today represents India as his country’s envoy to the U.S.A.
All these personnel in the Indian drama have been playing some role in one or the other pants of India since the emergency. Punjab, Kashmir and the north eastern states have been passing through the kind of times Chavan mentioned 20 years ago. Thousands of Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Kashmir and Christians in the north eastern states have been killed by India rather than imprisoned. Far more draconian laws have been in vogue in these states than were imposed during the 1975-77 period, Evidently, Chavan does not regard Punjab, Kashmir and a few other states as “Indian” with his security forces being on a killing spree. Of course, the killings are, in addition to the arrests and, to that extent, the rebel states remain a part of India
India can at any time fall back in a state of emergency not merely he because the late Rajiv Gandhi had the temerity to talk of reposing the emergency. His widow remains at the Indian power center. Sonia Gandhi’s political beliefs are mysterious. She does not let out her views. Yet, lakhs of powerbrokers salute her. In fact the Indian state itself encourages foreign dignitaries to call on her notwithstanding the fact what she holds no official position. “The Indian state resisted until the last, the intense pressure to end that hated, lawless law, TADA, and may enact its substitute any time after next year’s election. Jaiprakash Narajan had asked the Indian security forces in 197475 not to obey the orders of the executive that were contrary to the basic freedoms given by the Constitution, How many such orders were issued and how many security forces followed J.P’s call? Not only no security forces disobeyed the dictatorial orders of the executive but J.P.’s appeal was jeered al as anarchic by India’s ruling class, including its judiciary. Therefore, the forces could be expected to do everything they are asked to do by the rulers like Chavan, And men like Rao, Chavan and Ray are no isolated individuals, They represent a whole class, There are men like K.L. Advani, Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Inder Kumar Gujral waiting in the wings to strike when their tum comes. On the other hand, in Indian society, men like Palkhivala and Tarkunde are rare. As such, India is foredoomed as a state ever poised to end the farce of democracy and return to its natural imposition of self a declared or undeclared emergency in one or another region and in one or another from.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 30, 1995
