Gulab haath nahin aa raha: Punjab Governor recalls his struggle during Emergency

Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria gave sleepless nights to the Rajasthan Police while fiercely resisting the “oppression” unleashed by the Indira Gandhi regime when the Emergency was imposed 50 years ago.

“Gulab haath nahin aa raha…kya karen (Can’t catch Gulab, what should we do)?” the octogenarian politician-turned-Governor recalls these murmurs among Rajasthan law enforcement officials during the Emergency. Despite their efforts, the police failed to arrest Kataria as he spearheaded the anti-Emergency movement in his home district, Udaipur, in 1975.

In an exclusive interview with The Tribune, Kataria reflected on the Emergency period, marking its 50th anniversary. On the fateful night of its imposition, he left his home to go underground, ensuring the Jayaprakash Narayan-led movement remained active in his area.

“I had just finished my LLB (final year) exams. With the help of my student body colleagues, I set up a cyclostyle machine in a forest to publish a daily news bulletin, ‘Chingaari’,” Kataria recalled. Initially printing 200 copies, he disseminated anti-establishment news that the mainstream media was barred from reporting.

Circulating “Chingaari” across Udaipur’s remote and urban areas daily, Kataria became a “thorn” in the administration’s side, with the authorities desperate to detain him. “Until August 26, 1975, I evaded arrest and continued publishing. On Rakshabandhan, I visited my sister in Delwara (a small town in Rajasthan), who gave me ladoos for my family,” said the Chandigarh Administrator.

Upon returning home, Kataria learned that a close friend had been detained from a hospital where his friend’s wife had just delivered a child. He went to Ghantaghar police station to secure his friend’s release but was instead locked up with petty criminals. “I spent the night in the lock-up, denied even toilet access,” he said.

The next morning, when the thanedar saw him, he ordered him to be seated on a bench. However, an under-training SP, Mr Tewari, arrived shortly after and berated the SHO, “Tera baap hai kya ye jo isse bench pe bithhaya hai?” before ordering Kataria back into the lock-up.

Produced in a local court the next day, Kataria was remanded to police custody for a day before being jailed under the Defence of India Rules (DIR). “Even in jail, we were housed with hardened criminals. The conditions were suffocating, but we adapted,” he said.

Survival grew harder as winter intensified. Prisoners were given only a dari (mat) and a thin blanket. “After enduring freezing nights, I gathered all the barrack’s bedding and set it on fire,” Kataria recounted.

The district collector, furious upon hearing this, rushed to the jail demanding an explanation. “I told him I couldn’t survive the cold without proper bedding,” Kataria said. The DC then instructed the jail superintendent to provide facilities as per the jail manual.

Kataria, then 30, spent seven months in prison before he and six colleagues were discharged. His family struggled during this period, barely managing two meals a day. “Family members and friends, who used to visit my wife, would give her Rs 5 or 10, but it wasn’t enough,” he said, adding that his one brother worked at a private school, while another sold coconuts in the grain market to support the family.

When cops fell short of handcuffs

With the rising number of arrests during the Emergency, the police and jail staff started falling short of handcuffs and were forced to use thick rope to tie the accused while producing them in court, recalled the Punjab Governor.

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