The Emergency days were the darkest days in the post-independent India, Bengal
governor KN Tripathy has said.
In a note issued to the media on the 43rd anniversary of Emergency, the governor wrote: "How one can stoop so low to fulfil the lust for power was shamelessly demonstrated in those days in the activities of the then ruling party at the Centre. There was a reign of terror throughout the country. Illustrations of brutalities in different forms inflicted on innocent citizens are too many to count."
Excerpts from the statement:
The background for the imposition was the Judgement pronounced
on 12 June 1975 by Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High
Court setting aside the election of
Indira Gandhi. The imposition of
Emergency came too suddenly on June 25, 1975.
The declaration of Emergency did not receive the support of the
people at large. There were protests and demonstrations against it. By
and large, the people were so afraid and terrorised that they refused to say
anything about Emergency. When I, on the 25 th of June itself, requested
some of the senior members of the Allahabad Bar Association to pass a
resolution condemning the Emergency, they just avoided bring present in
the meeting itself. Later, a large number of Advocates of the Allahabad
High Court undertook a march in their robes from the High Court to the
Clock Tower Chowk, in the city in protest against the Emergency.
I distinctly recall how persons connected with the RSS, Jan Sangh,
Socialist party and other anti-Congress parties were implicated on false
charges and sent to jail under MISA/DIR (Defence of India Rules). A
Professor of the
Allahabad University with crippled and deformed hands
was charged for scaling a telephone pole and cutting telephone wires.
Same was the allegation about a very senior Advocate of the Allahabad
High Court. Thousands of people were challaned under the MISA/DIR.
I had to file several Writ Petitions in the
Allahabad High Court against
the detentions/proposed detentions. Salaries of teachers of schools
allegedly belonging to, or associated with, the RSS or other Opposition
parties were stopped bringing their families to a situation of starvation.
Many families of the detainees were not in a position to pay school fee
for the education of their children and also medical expenses if any one
fell sick. However, some organisations did come forward to the help of
such persons.
Schools run by the RSS were taken over by the Government. Some
of them were forced to close down. The newspaper ‘Motherland’ was
also a victim of the Emergency. People used to fear talking even to their
close friends against the Emergency. Democracy had been throttled by
every means and at every stage.
There is always a limit even to atrocities but this limit was crossed
everyday during the Emergency. Many Congressmen were seen active in
vindicating their personal grievances and forcing the police to arrest their
political adversaries.
Humanity was absent throughout the Emergency.
One or two instances of inhuman behaviour on the part fo
government officers are enough to show how much fear had been
generated in the mind of general people. One Satyabrata Sinha, a
very well known dramatist and literary figure was detained in Naini
Central Jail and was shifted to SRN Hospital due to serious illness. He
ultimately died there in detention. Nobody was ready to bring his dead
body and hand it over to his son. No ambulance was made available to
take the body to his residence which was in the city itself. The Hospital
authorities refused to provide ambulance to take the dead body for
cremation. The hospital authorities were afraid to even help in bringing
the dead body to the ground floor of the Hospital. Ultimately, two ward
boys took the courage to help us and with their assistance the dead body
of Sinha was brought to the ground floor and was put on the back seat
of my car. The atmosphere of terror and fear was so much that I could see
good friends of Satyabrata Sinha standing at a distance but had no
courage to come near the dead body. This incident shook the conscience
of many, not only his admirers but also of the public which was looking
at the entire thing from a distance.
A teacher from one of the western districts of UP came to
Allahabad to file a Writ Petition in the High Court seeking an order for
payment of his salary. Unfortunately he suffered a heart attack at the
railway station and was admitted to railway hospital, Allahabd. In his
pocket there was a letter bearing the name of an Advocate of the
Allahabad High Court along with his telephone number. The doctors
were kind enough to telephone the advocate and inform him about the
condition of the teacher which was very serious. The advocate and I
rushed to the hospital and consulted the doctor who advised us to shift
the patient to the medical college which was done. We talked to the
doctors there about his treatment and got our names and telephone
numbers and addresses noted against the name of the patient so that if
any need arose, they could contact us. To my utter surprise, two days
later we suddenly received information that the teacher was dead.
Nobody informed us about his condition earlier and when we went to the
hospital, his dead body was being put on an ekka for being thrown in the
river as unclaimed body. I had a heated exchange with the doctor as to
how his body was said to be unclaimed when our names and phone
numbers were noted against the patient’s slip. On an apology tendered
by the doctors the dead body was taken off the ekka and put in the
mortuary so that we could inform the relatives of the teacher to come to
Allahabad for funeral. When on the next day the family members of the
teacher arrived, except I and two of my friends there were no other
person in the hospital to take out the body from the mortuary to enable us
to take it to the cremation ghat. Again, the ambulance was not made
available. The atmosphere of terror was such that nobody came near the
dead body except the three of us and the two family members.
There are many such incidents when basic facilities and help were
denied to those in need.
It was just not an Emergency. It was a calamity brought down on
the people of India by none other than those who claimed to be
champions of democracy. Patriots suffered during Emergency. Self
seekers had a good day. The entire country was practically turned into a
jail. The Emergency saw thousands of innocent persons detained in jails
for 19 months. The torture of some of them in jail was also indescribable.
Several persons died in jail in detention. However, the silver lining was
the Indian Judiciary which came to the rescue of those who were being
illegally detained. The High Court granted bail and other reliefs also as
was felt necessary by it.
The other effect was that people who suffered became more
resolute and stronger in their conviction and the patriotic and democratic
feelings in them were strengthened.