– Hridaynarayan Dixit
Constitution rules in India. The framers of the Constitution have made a beautiful separation of powers between the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive. But the Emergency is the worst travesty of subversion of the Constitution in modern history. The then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi had made the entire country a prison 48 years ago (25 June 1975). The constitution (Article 352) provided for declaring emergency on the basis of external aggression and serious internal disturbance within the country. But then there was no internal disturbance in the country. The Prime Minister himself was suffering from internal turmoil. His parliamentary election was declared invalid on 12 June 1975 by the Allahabad High Court. According to the court, she had won the election through unfair means. His parliamentary seat of Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh) was declared vacant. A section of the ruling party and the entire opposition was demanding resignation. He decided not to step down from the post. Misused the emergency provision and imposed emergency.
A similar act of imposing dictatorship through the constitution was done by Adolf Hitler in Germany on 28 February 1933. Hitler was the Chancellor (head of power) of Germany. The Emergency was voted on in the Parliament of Germany. The majority of parliament was in favor of Hitler. 444 votes were cast in favor of emergency. 94 votes were cast in the opposition. 109 people abstained from voting. Similarly in India also the ruling party was in favor of the Prime Minister. It seems that Mrs. Gandhi was inspired by Hitler. Here the entire opposition was put in jail. Here the Congress Parliamentary Party and the party supported this dictatorship on the lines of Germany. Congress President called Indira as India and India as Indira. Jayaprakash Narayan, the great leader of the freedom movement, was also arrested. All nationalist leaders including Atal Bihari Vajpayee were also in jail. Humanity crushed. The police was in the role of the police of the British rule. Thought expression was throttled. Eminent journalists were victimised. The Prime Minister was aggressive on the power of the courts.
Mrs. Gandhi appealed in the Supreme Court against the decision of the Allahabad High Court. But he did not wait for the decision of the Supreme Court. There was a ridiculous amendment in the constitution. An amendment was made to free the parliamentary election of the Prime Minister from judicial interpretation and this constitutional amendment was implemented from the previous dates. The forty-second amendment of the Emergency deserves attention. The Constitution also provides for judicial review of parliamentary acts. But a distinction was made between the laws of the Union and the States to be challenged on the ground of violation of the Constitution during the Emergency. It was held that the Supreme Court in its jurisdiction under Article 32 cannot declare a State law unconstitutional unless the Central law is also called in question in such proceedings. Provided that the laws enacted to implement the Directive Principles would not be challenged on the ground of fundamental rights. Similarly, the High Courts were barred from hearing the unconstitutionality of the Central Law. Provisions were made to require a special majority of justices to declare a law unconstitutional. All such amendments were going to strangle the judiciary.
The court also has the power to declare constitutional amendments unconstitutional for being contrary to the basic spirit of the constitution or for other reasons. Article 368 of the Constitution Amendment was also amended during the Emergency. It was arranged that the law declared in the name of constitution amendment law cannot be challenged in any court. Social political activists were sent to jail without any reason. Lakhs of workers were in jail. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was a special target. The principle of natural justice was crushed. After sending any person to jail on any charge, the court hears his side. But this formula of natural law was not there in the infamous Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during Emergency. In Misa, the district administration used to pick up the person and send him to jail. His case did not go on in the court. Such a law is not there in any civilized country in the world. But there was police raj in India. The police used to beat unnecessarily. Thousands of social workers were dismembered. There was a flurry of constitutional amendments. 53 articles were changed at once. The Seventh Schedule was changed. The mouth of the press was crushed. There were cries of oppression and state-sponsored violence everywhere.
Fundamental rights are the soul of India’s constitutional system. They are tools to protect against the tyranny of the established government. Fundamental rights were enacted to provide protection from the tyranny of the state system. Mrs. Indira Gandhi was also curtailing fundamental rights. Laws made on the pretext of implementing the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution (Part IV) were kept away from judicial interpretation. The country was boiling due to government atrocities. I have experience of harassment as a MISA detainee. There is also the experience of the Defense of India Rule (DIR) applicable at that time. I was brought to the court in the case of DIR. The police beat up 10-12 activists who chanted Bharat Mata Ki Jai in the court. All the workers were covered in blood. It was heartbreaking. There were similar incidents in many parts of the country. Public anger was increasing. There was excitement among the public. The police raj was intolerable. The rulers were getting information about public anger. General elections were proposed. Afraid of the public, the government extended the dates of the general elections. The elections which were proposed in 1976 were conducted in 1977. The people themselves defeated the Congress. Mrs. Indira Gandhi herself lost the election from Rae Bareli. Congress came clean. All this happened when the entire opposition was in jail. The country took revenge for the atrocities of Emergency Emergency was lifted as soon as Mrs. Indira Gandhi was defeated.
Today it has been 48 years. But the memory of the Emergency still sends shivers. The new generation knows less about the government atrocities of Emergency. It was a nightmare. There was mass persecution. There were police attacks on innocents. All the democratic institutions were destroyed. The freedom fighters got freedom after a huge struggle. Here the nation was developing in the glory of democracy and constitution. Constitution-based parliamentary democracy was flourishing. But the then Prime Minister trampled on this beautiful system. Although the memory of Emergency is painful, but it is very important to remember it for the protection of the Constitution and democracy. Awareness against such tendency is even more important. At present, the Congress talks about the end of democracy every now and then. He should remember the old lesson of Emergency. There should also be proper introspection and apologize to the country.
(The author is a former speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.)
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