On 26th June(exactly today) of 1975, 38 years earlier, destroying the democratic practice and sentiments of India, the then president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon direction of prime minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under article 352 of the constitution of India. This civil liberty suspension has been considered as one of the worst time for Indians faced until today, after independence. Misusing the extraordinary powers, Mrs. Gandhi launched massive crackdown on civil liberties and political oppositions. The Government used police forces across the country to place thousands of protestors and striking leaders under preventive detention. J.P. Narayan, Raj Narain, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jivatram Kripalani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Satyendra Narayan Sinha and other
protesting leaders were immediately arrested. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Jamaat-e-Islami along
with some political parties were banned. Numerous Communist leaders were
arrested along with many others involved with their party. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was banned. Police clamped down on the
organization and thousands of its workers were imprisoned.
Gandhi's
Emergency rule lasted 21 months. The Mumbai edition
of The Times of India in its obituary column carried an entry that read "D.E.M O'Cracy beloved husband of T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justica expired on 26 June".
However, this democracy(?) has not been destroyed
only at that time for once! Last year, Aseem Trivedi, an Indian cartoonist
detained for his drawings satirising widespread corruption among India's political elite, has been jailed for two
weeks after he refused bail in protest at the sedition charges against him. This
is not the first case(and won’t be the last either!) of such kind. Assam and
other NE states, and also people of Jammu & Kashmir have been experiencing
human rights violations from after independence. The controversial
AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958) is one of such examples.
Anyway,
back to the emergency period of India, the 26th June, 1975, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan, a scholar of law, called that time as one of India's "blackest hours".
Courtesy:
Wikipedia, guardian.co.uk
