Chokalinga Chittibabu – DMK leader who was tortured to death for trying to save MK Stalin in prison during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency: Stalin’s alliance with Congress and the betrayal
50 years ago, on 25th June 1975, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in India. Gandhi faced the heat of the Allahabad High Court’s verdict that declared her election invalid due to electoral malpractices. To avoid losing the position of the PM, Gandhi imposed a national Emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution. Then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed proclaimed it, citing “internal disturbances” as the reason. The Emergency, which lasted for 21 months, was marred with the torture and imprisonment of political leaders across the country.
The press was muzzled, fundamental rights no longer existed, courts had become impotent, and thousands of citizens were jailed without charge under the draconian MISA. Among them were leaders of the Opposition such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and George Fernandes. They were paraded in shackles. People were tortured and died in police custody. Women were chained during childbirth and citizens were forced into mass sterilisations under Sanjay Gandhi’s coercive population control drive.
Indira Gandhi’s inner circle, which included Sanjay Gandhi, Kamal Nath and Ambika Soni, had more influence than Parliament itself. Parliament was just a rubber stamp and the media, in the words of LK Advani, “was asked to bend but chose to crawl.” Several citizens became handicapped for life due to police brutality. It turned the country into a police state where dissent was seen as a crime and loyalty to the ruling regime became a compulsion.
Once tortured by Congress, now aligned with it for political gain despite its continued authoritarian streak
Fifty years have passed, but the dictatorial tendencies have not faded wherever Congress is in power. One of the most recent examples includes the Congress government in Karnataka targeting Hindu activist Chakravarthy Sulibele based on the recommendations of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission. The DG&IGP’s office has also asked police stations to provide information on cases against him. Speaking at an event, Sulibele called it a diversionary tactic from the RCB event stampede. Another example is the expulsion of Digvijaya Singh’s brother, Lakshman Singh, from the party for six years after he publicly criticised Rahul Gandhi and Robert Vadra.
There are several leaders who were in the Opposition at the time of the Emergency and were jailed and tortured by the police. One of the finest examples is RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was thrown into jail by the then Congress government. The atrocities faced by Yadav marred his memories so deeply that he named his daughter Misa (Misa Bharti) after the MISA Act, under which he was arrested and imprisoned.
However, RJD now sides with the Congress. In fact, in September 2023, Rahul Gandhi visited Yadav’s residence, where he was served mutton prepared by Yadav himself.
Chokalinga Chittubabu: DMK leader who was tortured to death because he tried to save now Congress ally MK Stalin in prison
Lalu is not the only leader who was imprisoned by Congress but now stands with it for political gains. Another such leader was Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) President and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin.
Stalin was born on 1st March 1953 and was only 23 years old when he was arrested in 1976. In the first part of his autobiography in Tamil, Ungalil Oruvan (One Among You), Stalin described jail time as a ‘torture camp’. On 31st January 1976, the DMK government led by Stalin’s father Karunanidhi was dismissed. Hours later, police arrived at their Gopalapuram residence looking for him. At that time, he had gone to the nearby town of Mathuranthakam.
Police officers told Karunanidhi they wanted to search the house to make sure Stalin was not there. Karunanidhi did not oppose the search and told them Stalin would be back the next day. He ‘offered’ himself to be arrested in place of Stalin.
On 1st February 1976, Stalin came back and found his mother Dayalu Ammal and wife Durga weeping. Karunanidhi asked him to be prepared for all kinds of sacrifices in public life and told him that police were looking for him. He informed the police that Stalin was back and asked them to take him. Stalin was arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).
The prison was enough to break his courage due to police brutality. However, it was DMK party leaders who were jailed alongside him who saved him and took the beating themselves.
In 2009, when he went for a tour of the prison with his family, he recalled how Chittibabu sacrificed his life while saving him from police brutality. According to Karunanidhi, it was ill treatment in prison that pushed Stalin to join politics.
In July 2019, Stalin attended a marriage function in the family of DMK’s veteran leader Arcot N Veerasamy. He recalled how Veerasamy and former Lok Sabha MP Chokalinga Chittibabu saved him in prison. He recalled that it was the sheer presence and moral courage infused by Veerasamy and Chittibabu that made him stay alive in jail. Chittibabu died in prison because of the police brutality he faced for saving Stalin.
In May 2023, while dedicating a bridge named after Chittibabu, Stalin expressed gratitude to Chittibabu, as he was the one who saved him from the police brutality by taking the beating on his behalf.
Chokalinga Chittibabu, also known as Mayor Chittibabu, was an Indian politician and a DMK leader. He served as a DMK MP in Lok Sabha. Chittibabu had won Lok Sabha elections in 1967 and 1971. Born on 4th January 1937, he was arrested under MISA during the Emergency after the DMK government was dismissed in 1976. Chittibabu died of injuries due to police brutality suffered while attempting to save Stalin in Madras Central Prison.
The betrayal of memory: DMK’s alliance with the very hand that struck it
Five decades have passed since the Emergency was imposed. Yet, the wounds it left on Indian democracy remain fresh in history. One of the scars that the Emergency left was the death of Chittibabu, a DMK leader and former Lok Sabha MP, who succumbed to injuries sustained while protecting young MK Stalin from police brutality. He did not die in an accident or in a natural calamity. He died at the hands of Congress-led tyranny.
However, the same DMK, now drunk on power and entitlement, stands shoulder to shoulder with the Indian National Congress, the same party that crushed its government, imprisoned its leaders and caused the death of its own. The Congress did not just jail Stalin and other DMK leaders, it broke families and murdered democracy, claiming “internal disturbances”. Sadly, for electoral convenience, DMK finds comfort in the arms of the very same Congress party.
One wonders, what would Chittibabu have thought of this alliance? Would the man who sacrificed his life shielding Stalin approve of him supporting the Congress today? Dedicating a bridge to Chittibabu’s memory is not enough unless the DMK stops supporting the Congress party. It seems that in a desperate thirst for power at the Centre, the DMK has left its spine somewhere in the ruins of Gopalapuram’s past, full of torture.
India must not forget that the Emergency was not accidental but deliberate. It remains a permanent black mark on the Congress Party’s legacy. It is a reminder that when power goes unchecked, even the Constitution can be rendered meaningless.
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