Special to The Tribune: ‘When Sec 29 cops gave me electric shocks during the Emergency’

Satya Pal Jain

It has been 50 years since the Emergency was imposed in the country on June 25, 1975, but the memories of those dark days are still fresh in the mind.

On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha, a Judge of Allahabad High Court, set aside the 1971 Lok Sabha election of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Due to this, the demand for her resignation was continuously gaining ground, but instead of resigning, Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country on the intervening night of June 25 and 26. It was the time when the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan was at its peak.

On the morning of June 26, all Opposition leaders, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Morarji Bhai Desai, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Chaudhary Devi Lal, etc. were arrested and put behind the bars under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).

Dictatorship and autocracy only look at its own interests. Ideology has no importance for them. Proving this, Gandhi jailed not only the Opposition leaders but also the senior leaders of her own party, including the late Chandrashekhar and Krishan Kant. A large number of innocent people, who were jailed, lost their jobs, businesses were shut down and many families were on the verge of starving. But in spite of that, everybody fought against the Emergency bravely.

I was only 23 at that time and was the General Secretary of the Panjab University Students Council and the President of the Punjab and Chandigarh Students Committee in the movement led by late Jai Prakash Narayan. On July 13, 1975, when I went to take admission in the Law Department of Panjab University, I was denied admission despite being in the merit list. On the contrary, when I came out of the room after giving an interview, I was arrested. A false case was registered against me, alleging that I organised a student rally outside the Law Department on the day and said we would overthrow the Indira Gandhi government. In the month of December, the then Judicial Magistrate Hans Raj Nagara discharged me from the case and ordered my release.

After that, I carried out “Satyagraha” in Panjab University on January 27, 1976, and offered myself up for arrest. I was arrested and in the night, I was taken to the police lines in Sector 29, and tortured. My fingers were tied by thin copper wires and I was subjected to electric shocks. For a moment, it seemed that this night might be the last night of my life. But by the grace of God, I survived.

At the time, all fundamental rights were suspended and instead of bringing political prisoners from jail to court, Judges were ordered to hold court at jails itself. The police and the government had become completely autocratic and would put anyone in jail under false cases at any time. Bail for all such prisoners was legally banned.

About six months after imposition of the Emergency, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Opposition leaders, Jan Sangh and all non-Congress organisations started a movement against it. Thousands challenged the dictatorship of the country’s Prime Minister by offering themselves up for arrests.

Those dark days were truly very, very dark. Relatives, friends, everyone was scared of meeting us. There was an atmosphere of fear and terror everywhere. Radio was censored due to which people could get information only by listening to BBC news secretly. The whole country had become like an open prison where there was an atmosphere of terror, cruelty and dictatorship. Every person was afraid of the police. At one point, it seemed that democracy would never return to the country and Gandhi’s dictatorship would continue forever. Many times in jail, we used to think whether we would make it out alive or not.

When Gandhi called a session of Parliament to pass the Emergency Bill, it was the first and last occasion in Indian Parliamentary History that all the Opposition benches were vacant, only the MPs of the parties supporting the government in the Emergency Bill were present in the House. It was also perhaps for the first time that Gandhi recommended the imposition of Emergency to the President without the approval of the Cabinet, which the then President, Late Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, accepted. It, otherwise, was a unconstitutional proposal. The Cabinet was informed about it only in the next morning.

But Gandhi, full of arrogance that comes with power, in January 1977 thought that since no party or leader would be able to stand against her, decided to hold elections with the aim of giving another blow to the movement against the Emergency. The pressure had also mounted from other countries and the Opposition. But as soon as the elections were announced, the people’s patience broke and people openly rallied against her.

The slogan given by Jayaprakash Narayan, “Every vote cast for Congress will prove to be a handcuff and a shackle for feet”, worked like a panacea. Gandhi and the Congress lost the election by a decisive margin.

The Emergency was lifted from the country only after the crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha election in 1977. When Gandhi went to the then President BD Jati with her resignation after losing the Lok Sabha election, the latter advised her to withdraw the Emergency before resigning, otherwise the new government could use the laws made by her during same Emergency against her. Then, on the recommendation of Gandhi, the President lifted the Emergency even before the formation of the new government.

Even today, the mind trembles remembering those days, but the people of India have a will power and a democracy strong enough to rise above any crisis. Today is the day that the country should take a vow, that governments will come and go, but no dictator would ever be able to think of imposing an Emergency with a view to thwarting and overthrowing the Constitution of India and democracy itself.

(The author is the Additional Solicitor General of India and a two-time former Chandigarh MP)

Chandigarh