The night of June 25, 1975 is unforgettable in the political History of Bharat, when the Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent a letter to the then President of Bharat. A draft copy of the proclamation of Internal Emergency was also attached along with the letter.
A Dark Haste
In the letter, Smt Indira urged the President to invoke the extraordinary power given by the Constitution: “Dear Rashtrapatiji, as already explained to you, a little while ago, information has reached us which indicates that there is an imminent danger to the security of India being threatened by internal disturbances. The matter is extremely urgent.” She also wrote that there is no time at night for the usual procedure of getting prior approval from the Cabinet. She said, “I shall mention the matter to the Cabinet first thing tomorrow morning”.
She did not abide by the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules 1961, for prior approval from the Cabinet. She was also adamant in directing the high office of the President: “I recommend that such a proclamation should be issued tonight, however late it may be.”
The enclosed draft of the proclamation left the obedient President, Shri Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, to only put his signature on the paper. This is a glaring example of how the Congress Government worked when they won with a two-thirds majority in the election.
Within no time, under the seal and signature of the President, a “proclamation of Emergency” was declared, stating the reason “that a grave emergency exists whereby the security of India is threatened by internal disturbance.” No other details of the so-called “internal disturbance” were stated in the proclamation. The Congress Prime Minister had two prior experience of declaration of Emergency on the ground of external aggression and war situation, one in 1962 and the other in 1971.
The process popularised the term “kitchen cabinet” in which the then Cabinet approved an important decision, the next morning, which was taken without their prior permission. The Cabinet members were concerned only about their secure political position and adherence to power. Indian Constitutional history has rarely witnessed such a butchering of the Constitution. Some call it a Constitutional dictatorship since Indira Gandhi proved the constitution can be a tool to advance dictatorship.
Nehru Started the Brutalities against the Constitution
It is not the personal fault of Smt Indira Gandhi as she was inspired by her father who started the dirty practice with the First Amendment to the Constitution on June 18th 1951, immediately after the adoption of the Indian Constitution.
Pt Nehru was annoyed by the constant criticism levelled by the Organiser Weekly on the poor handling of refugees coming to Bharat after the partition. The objects and reasons to the First Amendment stated that from the experience of “fifteen months” of the working of the Constitution, it is seen that the effect of the right to freedom of speech and expression is “not to render a person culpable even if he advocates murder or violence!”
The wrong intervention of Pt Nehru was responsible for including Article 370 in the Constitution, giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir and creating a long-pending trouble in the region. In 1960, Pt Nehru brought the 19th Amendment of the Constitution to transfer Berubari in Bengal to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) despite objection from the people of West Bengal. During Indira’s regime in 1974, Katchatheevu Island was transferred to Sri Lanka.
Here is a comparison between the 10 years of the Modi Government and Indira Gandhi’s rule. Between 1966 and 1977, the Constitution was amended 25 times. In the 42nd Amendment, as many as 41 articles were amended and 11 were added. During the past decade, the constitution was amended only eight times; all amendments were made with the support of the Opposition parties.
Congress Governments from time to time, legislated different black laws to curtail the freedom of citizens and to suppress those who opposed the Government. Pt Nehru formulated an oppressive law, Defence of India Rules, 1962 in tune with the colonial Defence of India Act, 1915. It was withdrawn in 1967, but Indira revived it in 1971. During the emergency period, she promulgated an ordinance and renamed it the ‘Defence and Internal Security of India Rules, 1971’. In 1971, Indira Gandhi enacted the most draconian law called the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), 1971 which was a main oppressive weapon. Draconian laws like MISA, DISIR, and COFEPOSA were used extensively against political activists along with others.
Bitter Feud with Judiciary
Two-thirds of the majority enjoyed by the Congress Government was used as a weapon to mutilate the Constitutional provisions to nullify historic verdicts of the Higher Courts. In 1967, the Supreme Court in the Golaknath case, ruled that the basics of the Constitution, like fundamental rights, cannot be amended by the Parliament. But, when the Congress Government was re-elected in 1971 with a landslide electoral victory of a two-thirds majority, immediately on assuming power, the verdict in Golaknath case was nullified by passing the 24th Constitutional Amendment. When the Government’s case of withdrawal of the Privy Purse given to the former Princes was lost in the Supreme Court, the Parliament passed the 26th Amendment again in 1971 validating the Government’s order.
The historic Kesavanada Bharati case in 1973 on the doctrine of the “basic structure” is a glaring example of the Supreme Court intervening in the Congress Government’s frequent mutilation of the Constitution. The Congress Government and judiciary fought a fiery legal battle in the Kesavanada Bharati case on the constitutional validity of the 24th, 25th and 29th Amendments. Supreme Court, by a bench of a narrow majority of seven to six, decided against the Government and declared that the “basic structure” of the Constitution is not amenable to changes by the Parliament. On April 25th 1973, Smt Indira showed her vengeance by appointing Justice A.N. Ray, one among the judges who gave the minority view, as the Chief Justice of India superseding three other senior judges who gave the majority judgment.
The three judges who were part of the majority view resigned protesting the supersession. Smt Indira’s action was a clear warning against the independence of the judiciary. Judicial review is a vital protective measure guaranteed to the common man by the Indian Constitution. The big defeats of the Congress Governments in the courtrooms increased their grudge against the constitutional system of judicial review.
Smt Indira’s conflicting experience with the judiciary culminated with the Allahabad High Court verdict in an election fraud and malpractice case filed against her by her political opponent and defeated candidate, Sri Raj Narain. Shanti Bhushan was the advocate for Raj Narain and Nani Palkhivala was for Indira Gandhi in the case.
For the first time, a Prime Minister was cross-examined in that case, for five hours in the Court. On June 12th 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court declared Mrs Indira Gandhi guilty of misuse of Government machinery for the election campaign, her election was declared null and void, she was banned from contesting elections for six years and she was removed from the Lok Sabha. In the appeal to the Supreme Court, she attempted to get a stay of the entire verdict. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer gave a partial stay of the High Court judgment and allowed her to continue as Prime Minister pending the disposal of the appeal but ordered all her privileges as a member of Parliament be stopped and debarred her from voting. This was also a hard blow to her in her political career. It was the immediate provocation for declaring an emergency. However, later her election was upheld by the Supreme Court during the emergency period on 7th November 1975.
Apart from the setback in Allahabad High Court, she was provoked when protests for various reasons started in Gujarat and Bihar, and railway workers went on strike under the leadership of George Fernandes.
Mutilating the Constitution with Reckless Amendments
Congress Governments had scanty respect for the Constitutional system in the country. They have made frequent Amendments to kill the spirit of the Constitution to cater for their dubious designs. While proclaiming emergencies, a major attack of the successive Congress Governments was upon the Constitutional powers of the Judiciary and the citizen’s right to move the Court of law. The vital rights of the citizens were suspended by misusing the powers given by the Constitution itself.
The 38th Amendment w.e.f. August 1st 1975 inserted clause (4) in Art.352 which says: “The satisfaction of the President……. shall be final and conclusive and shall not be questioned in any court on any ground……neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall have jurisdiction….” Supreme Court on 28th April 1976 approved the suspension of the right to move the Court on the issue of fundamental rights during an emergency. Consequently, there were massive dismissals of petitions filed by the detenus and others by various Courts on the ground that a Presidential order had curtailed their Constitutional right to move the Court. Thus, the Congress Government under the Prime Ministership of Smt Indira Gandhi declared that it had an unfettered right to freeze the Constitution according to the whims and fancy with or without even the prior sanction of the Cabinet.
Congress’s attitude towards the Constitution is clear from the statement of objects and reasons given as a preface to the notorious Thirty-Eighth Amendment. It says: “There is no doubt that the satisfaction mentioned in those articles is subjective satisfaction (of the President) and that it is not justiciable (not subject to judicial scrutiny). There is no doubt that this was also the intention of the makers of the Constitution…..However, as the validity of the Proclamation issued under article 352 has been challenged in several proceedings and as litigation of this nature involves a ‘waste of public time and money’, it is proposed to amend these three articles so as to make the satisfaction of the President final and conclusive and not justiciable on any ground.”
On August 10th 1975, the Congress Government through the 39th Amendment of the Constitution, prevented the election of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Speaker of the Lok Sabha from being scrutinised by the courts. The 42nd Amendment in 1976 was the greatest blow ever heard in the Constitutional history of Bharat. The amendment Act was called a “Mini Constitution” for the exhaustive nature it carried. It curtailed the power of judicial review of higher courts, expanded the discretionary powers of the Prime Minister and Speaker of Lok Sabha, gave unlimited power to Parliament to arbitrarily amend the Constitution, allowed automatic suspension of fundamental rights when needed and amended Article 368 so that constitutional amendments cannot be challenged in Courts, apart from other changes to the Constitution.
Such draconian provisions were withdrawn by the 44th Amendment in 1978 after the Janata Party came to Power. Smt Indira amended even the Representation of People Act, 1951 giving the President the power to remove disqualifications declared by the Courts in election petitions. It was intended to nullify the Allahabad High Court verdict. Congress created a precedent of butchering the Constitution, the state suspending the constitutional provisions and fundamental rights of citizens, activists being jailed without any reason, enquiry or judicial scrutiny, imposing press censorship and many other arbitrary actions. Invoking extraordinary powers of the Constitution, Congress Governments, not only at the centre but also at various states, started massive crackdowns on the civil rights of the political opponents, which was worse than what the British Government had done earlier. Not only were political leaders arrested and organisations like RSS banned, but dissidents in the Congress Party like Chandrasekhar and Ram Dhavan were also jailed.
During the emergency, 34,988 persons were arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971 (MISA), and 75,818 persons were arrested under the Defence and Internal Security of India Rules, 1971. Thousands of others were subjected to brutal police torture. The Habeas Corpus case filed in Kerala High Court by the father of one Rajan, an engineering student at Calicut, was a glaring example of how the student disappeared after being taken in police custody during the Congress and Communist Party of India coalition-led Government in Kerala. Congress Government toppled the opposition party Governments in States like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat during the emergency.
The distinction of being the first media person to experience the ‘midnight knock’ (it is also the title of his book on emergency) and arrest goes to Shri KR Malkani, who was the editor of the daily, Motherland and the long-time editor of Organiser Weekly. Within two hours of promulgating the Ordinance on the 25th night of 1975, Malkani was arrested under the black law, MISA. He remained in jail for twenty-one months till the emergency was officially lifted on 21st March 1977. Press freedom was curtailed and censorship was imposed on newspapers. Many other leading journalists who protested were also arrested. Malkani has foreseen the danger of butchering the Constitution and had written on the front page of the January 1975 edition of ‘Motherland’ that Mrs Indira Gandi will soon impose an emergency and throw all those who oppose her behind bars and ban RSS. At that time, no one believed that it would happen.
Congress Continues Sabotaging the Constitution
The Congress Government’s misinformation and miscalculation on people’s mandate led Mrs Indira to announce Lok Sabha elections in March 1977. However, the people of Bharat showed their political maturity and declared through ballots that they never tolerate an autocratic Party to survive. In the election, the Congress Party under the leadership of Smt Indira Gandhi received a massive defeat and the Janata Party came to power. On 21st March 1977, the emergency was repealed. But some miscreants in the Janata Party, who did not learn from history, led to the installation of the Congress Government again at the centre.
Congress Party also did not change itself and learnt nothing from history. The Congress tradition of scanty respect for the Constitution continued while Sri Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. When the Supreme Court ruled in the Sha Bano case on a Muslim woman’s right to maintenance from her husband, the Congress Government enacted a law to nullify the Court verdict. Congress-led UPA Government brought the 93rd Amendment which excluded minority institutions from the purview of SC/ST special provisions in educational institutions. Ranganatha Mishra Committee and Sacchar Committee were appointed by the UPA Government which in their reports recommended reducing the space of SC/ST in reservations by including a section of Muslims in it. Congress Government tried hard to implement the recommendations to appease the minority votes. So far, successive Congress Governments have brought eighty amendments to the Constitution in their pursuit of mutilating the Constitution. To disrespect Constitutional systems and kill the spirit of the Constitution through various means, whether by amendments, using the extraordinary powers given by the Constitution or otherwise was a continuous occurrence in Congress’s history.
Leave a Comment