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Indira Gandhi Emergency 1975: Today is the 50th anniversary of the Emergency which is called a historic, unforgettable and black day in the history of Indian democracy. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imposed emergency in the country on this day i.e. 25 June 1975. Emergency was imposed in the country from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977. The first emergency of independent India was imposed on the midnight of 25-26 June with the signature of the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. After this decision, PM Indira Gandhi addressed the whole country through radio and said that brothers and sisters, the President has declared emergency. There is nothing to panic about this.
RK Dhawan, who was Indira Gandhi's personal secretary during the Emergency, said in an interview to a news channel that he was ready to resign after Indira Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership was cancelled, but on someone's advice, he postponed his resignation.
On this historic day, let us know many famous stories related to the Emergency, but before that let us take a look at the background of the Emergency.
, P.C. : Indian History)
Story shared by RK Dhawan…
RK Dhawan, who was the personal secretary of former PM Indira Gandhi, said that after the death of PM Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi took over the post of PM by sidelining the senior leaders of the Congress. After Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister, due to some reasons, her conflict with the judiciary increased and this conflict ultimately turned into an emergency.
In such a situation, the decision of the Supreme Court on 27 February 1967 was also a major reason for the Emergency. Giving a historic verdict, the division bench headed by the then CJI Justice Subbarao said that no constitutional amendment can be made with a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The order said that the provisions of the fundamental rights of citizens can neither be abolished nor limited.
The cause of the crisis?
The biggest reason for imposing emergency was to cancel PM Indira Gandhi's membership of parliament. In the 1971 elections, Indira Gandhi and Congress won the elections by a huge margin. Questioning Indira Gandhi's victory, Rajnarayan, who contested against her, approached the court in 1971 and said that Indira had used unfair means to win the election. After the hearing, the court gave a historic verdict and cancelled the election of Indira and Rajnarayan. After this decision, Indira Gandhi declared emergency.
On 24 June the court gave its verdict against Indira Gandhi and on 25 June Indira Gandhi called a cabinet meeting and announced the decision of emergency and then on the midnight of 25 and 26 June President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed issued an emergency ordinance and emergency was imposed in the whole country.
So now it is reasonable to ask, how did Indira Gandhi, who was ready to resign, agree to the emergency?
RK Dhawan said in an interview that Indira Gandhi did not declare emergency to save her political career. In fact, she herself was ready to resign. When Indira heard the decision of the Allahabad High Court, she agreed to resign. She also wrote a resignation letter and did not sign it only because at that time senior cabinet colleagues persuaded her not to resign. Everyone was adamant that she should not resign at any cost.
What was in the letter written by Bengal CM to Indira?
According to RK Dhawan, the then Bengal CM Siddharth Shankar Ray was the architect/promoter of the Emergency. Dhawan said that on 8 January 1975, SS Ray wrote a letter advising to impose the Emergency. He strongly advocated for the Emergency after Indira Gandhi's election was cancelled. Dhawan further said that all the preparations for the arrest were done 5 days before the Emergency was imposed. In a shocking revelation, Dhawan said that several state Congress chief ministers at the time had assured Sanjay Gandhi that he was more popular than his mother Indira Gandhi.
Role of wife Maneka in Sanjay's decisions?
Now if we talk about the second big character of the Emergency, his name is Sanjay Gandhi. It is said that when Indira Gandhi was the PM, Sanjay Gandhi used to take most of the decisions. Sanjay and his wife Maneka Gandhi knew everything related to the Emergency. She was with her husband Sanjay Gandhi at every step.
Dhawan made a shocking revelation in an interview that Indira Gandhi was completely unaware of decisions like forced sterilization and bulldozing at Turkman Gate. Indira Gandhi did not even know that Sanjay was going to acquire land for his Maruti project. Dhawan said that Sanjay Gandhi's wife Maneka Gandhi was behind all these decisions. What should Sanjay Gandhi and his young team do? Maneka Gandhi was handling and directing all this.
After Sanjay Gandhi's death, his wife Maneka formed the Rashtriya Sanjay Manch along with Sanjay's associate Akbar Ahmed Dumpy. After this, Maneka joined the Janata Dal in 1988 and reached Parliament by winning the election from Pilibhit in 1989. Maneka, who was a Union Minister in the Atal government in 1999, officially joined the BJP in 2004.
