Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed an Emergency in 1975 and incarcerated opposition leaders. In 1977, she lifted the emergency and released her political opponents from jail so that they could contest the elections which she had called (and hoped to win). She never arrested a single opposition leader once the general election schedule was announced.
Had she been alive today she would have been bewildered to see the Modi regime arresting several prominent opposition leaders even as the country prepares to vote in general elections starting April. Among the more prominent leaders now behind bars are Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and K. Kavitha of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi. They were arrested after the Enforcement Directorate issued notices against them on charges of corruption; all of them as well as other leaders of their parties faced repeated raids on allegations of corruption and money laundering. Added to this is the de facto freezing of the Congress’s accounts which have financially crippled the party and will prevent it from effectively contesting the elections. Once the Emergency was lifted, Indira Gandhi never took coercive action against opposition parties and leaders, nor did she stifle their sources of finance or incapacitate them by blocking their accounts.
The current regime’s ruthless action against the opposition forms part of a strategy to portray Modi’s opponents as corrupt.
The post of Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, which by convention is held by an Opposition MP, was never filled. The government’s decision to ensure the Opposition was denied any space even in the functioning of parliament was unprecedented in the history of India’s democracy.
It is shocking that the opposition was treated with such disdain that it was never allowed to adorn the chair of presiding officer of the Lok Sabha. Now, it is facing brazen intimidation just when it is poised to contest elections.
In the last winter session, a record 140-odd Members of Parliament were suspended from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for raising questions against the Modi regime and protesting in the House against its policies. Again, this mass suspension of the Opposition was unprecedented in the history of parliamentary democracy. It deprived the House of the precious opportunity of deliberation and consultation before passing key laws by factoring in the perspectives of the opposition parties. Such sordid developments subvert parliamentary democracy and negate the vision of Dr B.R. Ambedkar who famously said that Parliament belonged to the opposition too – where its role was to hold the government to account.
Also read: It’s Unfair to View Indira Gandhi Through the Lens of the Emergency Alone
While he was in jail during the 19 months of the emergency from 1975 to 1977, the socialist leader Chandrasekhar wrote in his prison dairy about the apprehensions of his fellow jail inmate Biju Patnaik that Indira Gandhi would take measures to make elections very expensive and that the opposition parties would find it impossible to mobilise finances for contesting elections against the Congress. But his fears were misplaced. Indira Gandhi never did any such thing. Contrast that with what Narendra Modi has done through his Electoral Bond scheme, which has enabled the BJP to amass thousands of crores – more than the combined receipts of all the other parties and much, much more than the Rs 1500 crore the Congress managed to collect. If anything, Biju Patnaik’s apprehensions have come true thanks to the Modi regime which, during the past ten years, has enlarged the role of money power in the election process. Now, with the freezing of its accounts, the Congress is facing a massive funds crunch and is not sure how it will take care of its election expenses.
The sharp contrast between Indira Gandhi’s post-Emergency and Narendra Modi’s undeclared emergency with his ruthless steps against the opposition clearly testify to the existential crisis faced by India which has been described as “an elected autocracy” and “a partially free country.”
Only people’s decisive mandate against such a regime can salvage Indian democracy.
S.N. Sahu served as officer on special Duty to President of India K.R. Narayanan.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
