Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mr Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi’s suggestion that a chapter on the Emergency must be introduced in
school textbooks should certainly be welcomed by all those who cherish
our Constitution and our democratic way of life.
Speaking on the
sidelines of an event held in Lucknow to mark the 41st anniversary of
the imposition of the dreaded Emergency, where many “Loktantra
Senanis” (those who fought against the Emergency) were felicitated, Mr
Naqvi said that successive generations must be told about the atrocities
that were committed during those terrible 19 months when democracy
stood eclipsed in India.
He said 75 per cent of the country’s
population was unaware of why and how emergency was imposed and what
happened while it lasted. Schoolchildren should know the truth about
this dark phase in India’s post-independence history, just as they learn
about the freedom movement and about those who fought for India’s
independence.
India came under a dictatorial regime after the
Allahabad High Court unseated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in June, 1975
for indulging in corrupt electoral practices in her Lok Sabha
constituency, Rae Bareli in the 1971 election. Mrs Gandhi however
decided to defy the Constitution and democratic norms and remain in
power, whatever the means. She fell back on a never-used provision in
the Constitution, and imposed an “Internal Emergency”, which enabled her
to introduce draconian laws, imprison all her political opponents and
critics and unleash a reign of terror across the country.
Gandhi’s
Emergency regime crushed all the major institutions including the
Parliament, the judiciary, the Executive and the media. Today’s
generation needs to be told how the Constitution was mutilated and how
every institution buckled under pressure. This will also educate young
Indians on what actual “intolerance” is all about and also about the
vulnerability of those who man these institutions to threats and
inducements.
During this ugly period in the nation’s history,
Parliament became a rubber stamp, and passed some of the most atrocious
constitutional amendments. It began with the 38th Amendment that
prohibited a judicial review of the emergency proclamation. The 39th
Amendment barred the Supreme Court from hearing any petition against the
election of the Prime Minister. The 41st Amendment went even further.
It said no civil or criminal proceedings could be instituted against the
Prime Minister for anything done by her before or after she entered
office. In other words, the Prime Minister became a super citizen, who
would be above the law.
Today’s high school children need to know
that India once had a Prime Minister who put herself above everyone
else. Then came the 42nd Amendment, many provisions of which would only
bring utter shame to those who voted for it. As everyone is aware, Mrs
Gandhi had a rubber stamp President called Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, who
signed on the dotted line when she sent him the notification for
imposition of the Emergency.
He did not even ask her how she could
come to him with such a major proposal without getting the same cleared
by her Cabinet. Assured of such a compliant President, Mrs Gandhi got
Parliament to pass a provision which enabled the President to amend the
Constitution through an execute order. Hitler and Mussolini got their
Parliaments to empower them in this manner.
Those in school today
must know Parliament and the President were made rubber stamps and how
the judiciary and the media were stifled. Today’s generation must also
know how, while on the one hand, Mrs Gandhi strangled the judiciary
through these constitutional amendments, the judiciary, at very critical
moments, let down the Constitution, the people and democracy itself.
Many
judges buckled under pressure at that time and Shiv Kant Shukla v ADM
(Additional District Magistrate), Jabalpur, also known as the Habeas
Corpus Case, offers the best example. In this case, a five-judge bench
of the Supreme Court upheld the Indira Gandhi government’s contention
that during the Emergency, no citizen had the right to challenge his or
her detention or to move a writ of habeas corpus.
This, after the
Attorney General told the court that so long as the Emergency was on, no
citizen could seek relief in a court of law, not even when a policeman
shoots a citizen dead in the police station. Only one of the five
judges — Justice HR Khanna — dissented. Justice Khanna, who was in line
to become the Chief Justice of India, was superseded by Mrs Gandhi.
All
the other four judges, who wrote a judgement that snuffed out a
fundamental right given to citizens by the Constitution, became chief
justices of the Supreme Court. The younger generation must be told that
despite the terror that prevailed then, we had an extraordinary judge
like Justice Khanna, who stood by the citizens’ fundamental right,
unmindful of its implications for his career. “Mrs Gandhi’s
dictatorship, both in its personalised and institutionalised forms is
now complete”,
Jayaprakash Narayan declared woefully, when he heard the
Supreme Court verdict in this case.
Similarly, the younger
generation must be told of the journalists, writers, artists etc who
stood up to the brutal regime, went to jail and faced many travails, so
that democracy may return. As many as 1,11,000 persons were detained
under MISA and the Defence of India Rule, the dreaded laws which were
used to intimidate citizens. That is why the fight against Indira
Gandhi’s Emergency is called the Second Freedom Struggle. Children who
learn of the heroic deeds of many of those who fought against Indira
Gandhi’s dictatorship, will be inspired to stand up for their freedoms.
A Surya Prakash is Chairperson of Prasar Bharati
Email: suryamedia@gmail.com
Courtesy: The New Indian Express
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