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Emergency: A cornered Mrs Gandhi roared back

By Shubham
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Google Oneindia News

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The loss of the Congress in some crucial by-elections in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana in 1975 had widened the gap between Indira Gandhi and the Opposition. The prime minister saw it a design of foreign hands in India's internal affairs and turned paranoid to a point of no return.

JP appeals to govt employees

JP took this opportunity to warn government employees not to display loyalty to political leaders but to the nation. He said state tools like MISA had put enough pressure on the government agents to act as per unfair executive orders. JP could perhaps see that the climax of the growing confrontation between the government and the opposition and civil forces was reaching the tipping point.

Young Turks in Congress oppose Mrs Gandhi's personalised rule

The anti-Indira mood was given a big boost by young leaders in the Congress like Chandrasekhar, Krishna Kant and Mohan Dharia. They repeatedly asked the leader to give up her megalomaniac way of conducting things and seek a reconciliation with all opposing forces. But Indira Gandhi never cared to bend.

On March 6, 1975, JP and Opposition leaders took out a huge rally of citizens (it was compared to Mahatma Gandhi's Salt March) and presented a charter of demands to the Speaker. It was also decided that April 6 that year will be observed as Revoke Emergency Day (it was in reference to the war emergency which was imposed in December 1971). The opposition feared that the regime could use the emergency to suspend the 1976 election. In Gujarat, veteran leader Morarji Desai led a rally demanding pending state election.

The state resorts to repression

What followed next revealed the bankruptcy in Indira Gandhi's political capacity and marked the beginning with India's tryst with dictatorship. The Congress regimes in Orissa (now Odisha), West Bengal and Bihar targetted the protesters. JP's car was fiercely attacked in Calcutta (now Kolkata) where the current chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, then a young Congress leader, danced on it.

But that Mrs Gandhi was slowly losing the battle became evident in June 1975 when her party lost the assembly polls in Gujarat and coupled with the earlier by-poll losses, it was getting clear that the iron lady of India was losing her grip.

Allahabad HC verdict gives a decisive blow

The final blow to the coffin came on June 12, the same day when the Gujarat election result was announced. The Allahabad High Court indicted Gandhi on two corruption charges in the conduct of the 1971 elections, invalidated her election and even banned her from holding any public office for six years.

A cornered Mrs Gandhi, like a caged tiger, decided to roar back and instead of going through proper political channels, she encouraged street protests to project herself as a leader who was still sought after by the people.

The effigy of the brave judge, Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha, was burned. Public buses were used to transport demonstrators to rallies to exhibit the support for Indira Gandhi while vehicles carrying supporters to join JP's rally were stopped. Thousands of common people were left stranded since the public transportation was crippled.

The Congress party itself was also divided on whether to continue to support Indira Gandhi as the leader. On June 21, the Opposition parties passed a resolution condemning the show of brute force by the ruling establishment.

Media turned critical of Mrs Gandhi

The national media showed its contempt for Gandhi. A civil disobedience movement was expected, leading to the moral defeat of Indira Gandhi but before it could begin, the latter, who was given a 12-day time space to choose a successor, India was brought under the Emergency, the second one.

Emergency a step to corner enemies in Congress?

It was such a unilateral decision (Mrs Gandhi's cabinet did not meet till the morning of June 26 to take the decision while the President signed the proclamation on the prime minister's orders on the previous night) that many political observers feel that the step was taken not because Mrs Gandhi felt apprehensive of the opposition and the growing public outrage but more because the leader found in it an opportunity to corner the ambitious voices in her own party who were hoping for a change at the helm through the anti-incumbency.

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