June 26 1975
Since early morning on that day, Sangh Swayamsevaks had started visiting the office and sharing the information about the arrest incidents happened in their respective areas. Those arrested were workers of RSS, Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS), Bharatiya Lok Dal, Samajwadi and Congress (Organisation). Many others had evaded the police, so could not be arrested. Shri Jagdish Mathur, the office in-charge of BJS, had left his place 10 minutes before the arrival of police. Kedar Nath Sahni was out of Delhi to attend a wedding. When police reached his residence, his wife shared his whereabouts with the Police. The moment police left, she realised her mistake and immediately asked a driver to rush to the wedding destination. After receiving the message from the driver, Sahni ji immediately left for some unknown hiding. Within 2 minutes of his leaving the place, police reached the destination.
Sarvshri Sunder Singh Bhandari, Nanaji Deshmukh, Surya Narayan Swami, Ravindra Varma (who later became Labour Minister too), Rajbau Gaur etc. too disappeared dodging police search. Vijay Kumar Malhotra was at Mussoorie, and got arrested there. Lala Hansraj Gupt, who also had been to Mussoorie immediately started towards Delhi, and evaded arrest; later on July 27, 1975, he courted arrest by performing Satyagraha at Patel Chawk in Delhi.
As mentioned earlier, power supply to all media houses was disconnected so no newspaper could be printed on June 26, 1975 morning. Fortunately, in the afternoon of the June 26 June, 1975 the power supply was restored for few minutes. Within that period, the editorial and press team of ‘The Motherland’ newspaper did a magical work (despite arrest of the editor K R Malkani in the previous night) and came out with a two page newspaper. By then pre-censorship (government clearance of the matter before publication) was imposed. The Motherland refused to follow this immoral and anti-people order. Whatever Government wanted to hide from the public, The Motherland exactly published that. Then only people came to know that leaders like Jay Prakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpai, Lal Kushan Advani, Raj Narain, Chandershekhar, Chaudhary Charan Singh, K R Malkani etc. Such a drastic change overnight!
By then, the public had started understanding the meaning and effects of the emergency. Emergency simply means – any opposition to Smt Indira Gandhi will land you in jail. Emergency means –concealing truth from the masses. Emergency means – muzzling the media voices. Emergency means – end of the human rights for citizens. Emergency means – saying ‘yes’ to whatever Indira Ji said as a sycophant.
As soon as the Motherland paper hit the stands, the public rushed to procure its copy. Within half an hour, a newspaper costing 10 aanas started selling in 1 rupee. At some places, the price surged to 5 to 10 rupees. How could a newspaper exposing the government’s conspiracy could save itself from the Government’s wrath? The police caught hold of hawkers from nook and corner and confiscated all the copies. Some of them were beaten up in the open market. Some of them were taken to the police station. Even their collections from selling of the newspapers were also taken by the police at many places.
And by evening, office of The Motherland was sealed with a Government lock. The Motherland (sister publication of Organiser Weekly) became the first newspaper to be martyred while performing the democratic duty on June 26, 1975.
June 27, 1975
Around 10am, I reached to meet Shri Madhav Rao ji. I could see him sitting on a chair in the corner, as soon as I entered. Despite being concerned, his usual composure was maintained on the face. After greeting him with Namaste, I sat myself beside him in another chair. He responded my Pranam with smile and asked, “How did you manage to escape from the arrest”?
“Perhaps, police did not need me”, I replied.
“Police must have made some inquiry about you?”, He asked.
With a negative reply, I narrated the entire sequence of events happened after the midnight of June 25, 1975.
“What should I do the next?”, I asked for his guidance.
“You and Dr Satyapal should stay at the Jhandewalan office, until it is impossible to stay there”. After getting his instructions on some important issues, I returned to Jhandewalan.
Dr Satyapal was a Sangh Pracharak and used give his services in the charitable clinic run at Jhandewalan by the Keshav Smarak Samiti. This hospital was also sealed on July 6, 1975 and Dr Satyapal was arrested.
My heart was heavy after meeting Madhav Rao Ji. He was seriously ailing for the past one year and his weight was reduced to half. While remaining underground at secret locations, how would he continue with his treatment, how could his dietary protocol be adhered to and how would he manage to take this mental stress in these adverse conditions, these questions were troubling me. He was carrying with huge responsibility of the organisation. Despite all odds, throughout the emergency, the way remained the guiding force for the entire organisation and enabled it to face all the Government atrocities was the testament to his incredible willpower and determination. In the twenty months period, I was fortunate to meet him at least 30-40 times, but could never see an iota of any stress on his face. Serious but smiling face was the hallmark of his personality.
After returning to the Jhandewala office, I came to know about a call from the Rajasthan Prant Pracharak (full-timer of RSS with the state level charge) Shri Brahamdev Ji. In the afternoon, he again called back and asked in his jovial style, “Dear brother, what are the instructions for us?”.
“Nothing so far”.
“At least, arrange a meeting with someone”.
‘Someone’ he meant for an all-India level office bearer of RSS. I did not wish to disclose that Madhav Rao was in Delhi as I was sure that intelligence agencies must be tapping the phone calls. A small mistake could lead to grave consequences. I told him that none was present in Delhi.
“How would I come to know when someone arrives in Delhi?”
You will get the information at your location, I replied.
Similar phone calls were received from various locations of Uttar Pradesh too. Some Karyakartas even asked whether they should reach Delhi. I strictly dissuaded them from visiting Delhi and informed them that if there is an instruction, they would get the same at their respective locations.
There were two purposes to maintain the stand that ‘No one is in Delhi’. Firstly, unnecessarily congregation of workers in Delhi should be avoided. And secondly, Delhi police must be assured that none of the RSS top functionaries is in Delhi.
Shri Moropant Pingle , RSS Sah-Sarkaryavah (Joint-General Secretary) and Bhaurao Deoras, the then All India publicity in-charge had left for the Badrinath Yatra. In the course of their journey to Badrinath, emergency was proclaimed. Madhav Rao wanted to recall them back immediately, therefore, send a Karyakarta to establish communication with them.
