'Indira's phoney emergency turned democracy into constitutional dictatorship'
June 24, 2018 20:30
On the eve of the 43rd anniversary of Emergency, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday recalled how more than four decades ago the government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi clamped a phoney emergency that turned democracy into constitutional dictatorship.
On June 25, 1975, Indira declared a state of emergency across the country citing that security of India was threatened by internal disturbance. Between June 26 to March 21, 1977, when the Emergency was in force, the government of PM Indira Gandhi assumed draconian powers and crushed all dissent. Hours before the proclamation through the night of June 25-26 police arrested all major Opposition leaders, including Jaiprakash Narayan.
It was a phoney emergency on account of proclaimed policy that Indira Gandhi was indispensable to India and all contrarian voices had to be crushed. The constitutional provisions were used to turn democracy into a constitutional dictatorship, said Jaitley in a Facebook post, the first part of the three-part series titled The Emergency revisited. The second part of the series will come tomorrow.
In the days that followed, civil liberties were suspended, media censored, and amendments were brought that threatened to alter the basic character of the Constitution. Draconian laws like MISA were strengthened. The government suspended the right to move court for enforcement of Fundamental Rights.
Jaitley claimed that he became the first Satyagrahi against the Indira Gandhi-led governments draconian move and was lodged in Tihar Jail for organising a protest meeting on June 26.
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