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On June 25 India marks and observes 50 years of Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi over what she said was internal disturbance. It was within 28 years of achieving Independence from the British and within 25 years of the adoption of the Constitution that the Constitution was suspended. For a while, it looked as though democracy had failed in India and it had stepped into dictatorship in less than three decades. Thankfully, those 21 months of the “state of emergency” remained and will always remain just an aberration in India’s democratic history.

 

It was not for the first time though that a ‘state of Emergency’ had been imposed in India. It was actually for the third time. First, the emergency was imposed in 1962 during the Chinese aggression and later in 1971 during the Bangladesh war. On those occasions, the reasons were valid and public supported it.

 

In 1975, the motive and intent of the emergency was absolutely autocratic, draconian and dictatorial as Indira Gandhi felt threatened that she was being ousted from power. Her 1971 election from Rae Bareilly parliamentary constituency had been held illegal by the Allahabad High Court. She was also barred for six years from contesting any election. However, she was granted partial relief by the Supreme Court of India that she could continue as the Prime Minister, while it upheld the Allahabad High Court verdict of disqualifying her.

 

There was already a mass movement launched against her by the opposition parties, which was led by Jay Prakash Narayan, popularly known as the ‘JP Movement’. There was widespread unrest in the country and it had been pushed to virtual anarchy. That is why some prominent Indians like Acharya Vinobha Bhave, JRD Tata and Khushwant Singh had supported emergency.

 

The final trigger came when JP reportedly asked the paramilitary forces not to obey the “illegal” orders of the government. And on the night of June 25, Gandhi recommended the state of emergency, which was approved by a compliant President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.

 

What followed was draconian dictatorship. Civil rights were suspended. Almost each and every opposition leader and prominent worker was jailed. A small coterie of Indira Gandhi, led by her son Sanjay Gandhi, took over the reins of the government. For a while, India was reminded of the British rule. While the British had been thrown out about 28 years ago, new native dictators had been born. For a while, it looked like the end of democracy as all constitutional rights had been suspended.

 

Gandhi and her coterie had managed to crush the anti-emergency protests with an iron hand. Any opponent or critic of the emergency was jailed, including those from within the Congress party who had opposed the decision, like Chandershkhar.

 

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But eventually the democratic spirit prevailed. Gandhi, within 21 months of having imposed the emergency, called for General Elections in March 1977. Indira Gandhi and her party were trounced and badly defeated. From 354 seats in 1971, the party came down to 156 seats only. The opposition set up the famous Shah Commission to probe the “misdeeds” of emergency. Gandhi and her son were jailed only to be released on bail after some time.

 

It was for the first time after 30 years that a non-Congress, Janta Party government, was formed in the country. Morarji Desai, an ex-Congressman, became the prime minister. But he could barely survive for two years as the internal intrigues within the Janta Party, which was a lose “opportunistic arrangement” of the opposition parties formed ahead of elections, made the government fall under its own inherent contradictions.

 

In 1980, fresh General Elections were held and Indira Gandhi returned to power with a thumping majority. This raises the question as to how could the people of the country forgive someone who had subjected them to such draconian emergency just five years ago. It was apparently the failure of the Janta Party to emerge as an alternative to the Congress. People realised that most of those opposed to Indira Gandhi were not opposed to her for any principles, but only for power. In hindsight, they seemed to have found her strict rule better than that of the anarchic rule of the Janta regime.

 

In a way, people of India forgave Gandhi within five years after punishing her in 1977 General Elections. But reelecting her in 1980 did not mean that people had approved what she had done. She had been punished once and then the country thought she deserved another chance. She did emerge as a better and a reformed leader.

 

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Unfortunately, she ended up committing a fatal error of judgement by listening to the advice of sending country’s Army into the Golden Temple, the holiest place of Sikhs, to flush out militants from there. The operation apparently did not go according to the plan as it led to massive damage, both physical and psychological. Those wounds have still not healed. She fell to the bullets of her own Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, who avenged her for Army action in their holy shrine.

 

The dark phase of 21 months was a lesson for everyone in the country that the democracy and the Constitution can be endangered and just one autocratic dictator can turn things upside down and change the democratic regime into dictatorship. Thankfully, it has not happened again in 50 years and it is not going to ever happen again. There is greater awareness among the masses. Besides, the democratic roots have now gone too deep and strong to be upset by anyone.

 

India has survived and emerged as a strong and powerful democracy despite the 1975 aberration. As time passes, democracy gets strengthened further. Moreover, being a parliamentary democracy, there is hardly any scope of 1975 getting repeated ever again. We have always had peaceful transition of power. Our electoral system remains strong and transparent where popular and powerful leaders like Indira Gandhi, PV Narsimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee are voted out. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one of the strongest heads of the country, barely survived the electoral trial by fire in the last year’s General Elections. He almost lost power despite being so popular and so powerful.

 

That is why the Indian democracy is too strong to slip again into a period like the one between 1975 and 1977. While the credit for that goes to the founding fathers of our Constitution who bequeathed to us a great and glorious constitutional and democratic legacy, successive regimes, irrespective of the party they represented, have also contributed to and strengthened the democratic traditions.