Fateful June 12 1975

Some days ago, the anniversary of the declaration of the Internal Emergency was observed across the country, including Uttarakhand, at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Prime Minister himself led the show, reminding the countrymen of the terrible time when the then Indira Gandhi regime went all-out to throttle the voice of democratic India by throwing the opposition stalwarts behind bars, censoring the press and suspending the Constitution. A Union Minister came to Dehradun to preside over the observance and sought to establish with facts and figures how then authoritarian Congress regime wreaked havoc with the democratic system of governance, laid brick by brick over the years, just to help Indira Gandhi cling to power in the wake of the Allahabad High Court ruling which nearly unseated then Prime Minister.

Now, it is interesting to see what Indira Gandhi felt and did on the fateful day-June 12 1975-on which the court delivered its judgment which triggered tumults on the political landscape of a shell-shocked nation. Let us go into the pages of Indira Gandhi’s biography penned by her friend Pupul Jayakar. It is, of course, instructive to reconstruct the events of the day on which the judgment was delivered which took the nation by storm and precipitated the imposition of the Emergency. Let us see what Jayakar writes.

On the morning of 12 June, Indira Gandhi awoke to the news that D P Dhar, a friend and a close associate, was dead. She dressed hurriedly and arrived at Dhar’s house early in the morning to mourn with the family. She returned to her residence, somber and distraught. Her son Rajiv Gandhi found her in her study, gazing out on her tiny enclosed garden of evergreens. He told her that the judgment had gone against her and Justice Sinha had declared her election invalid.

A few minutes later another message came through that the judge had debarred her from taking part in any election processes for the next six years. She received the news with a stoic calm. A few days earlier, a news percolated to her that the judgment would go against her. Vengal Rao, then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, had intercepted a message from Jayaprakash Narayan to Sanjiva Reddy. Jayaprakash told Reddy that he had definite information that the judgment was going against Indira. ‘She will be disqualified for six years. This is the time for us to attack. I want your support.’ Jayaprakash further told Reddy that he had contacted K Kamraj in Tamil Nadu, but he was hesitant.

Siddhartha Shankar Ray, at the time the Chief Minister of West Bengal, was in Delhi on that fateful day. Within minutes of hearing the news, Ray was at Indira’s home along with H R Gokhale, then Union Law Minister. On seeing them, Indira said she must resign immediately. Ray argued with her. ‘Let us think it over. You should not take a decision in a hurry.’ But Indira was adamant.

Uma Shankar Dikshit, Jagjivan Ram, then Union Agriculture Minister, and D K Barooah, then Congress president, reached her home in a few minutes after Siddhartha. It was an oppressive, dust-filled day. Gossip, ambition, double talk distorted the situation. Every politician present swore loyalty to Indira, yet every one of them was aware that the incredible had happened and the prime minister’s post was within reach.

Sanjay Gandhi who was away in his car factory came home at lunch time. Unaware of what happened, once he was told he was quick to gauge the situation. He took his mother to her room and told her angrily that he would not let her resign. He was particularly outraged to learn of Barooah’s suggestion that she should take over the Congress presidentship from him while he took over as prime minister for a short period till her appeal was heard by Supreme Court. Sanjay pointed out that once Barooah had taken over as prime minister he would not vacate the post for her. Behind their façade of loyalty, he was sure her colleagues were driven by personal ambitions. They all sought power. She should not resign under any circumstances.

Now let us see what Kuldip Nayar writes in The Judgement about how things were preceding the judgment being delivered. “…on 12 June 1975, Neivulne Krishna Iyer Seshan, Indira Gandhi’s seniormost private secretary, was nervously flitting from one machine to the other.

 There was an eerie silence in the room which even the noise of the tickers and telephones did not seem to disturb.  There was news in the making and Seshan waited impatiently for it.

It was the day Justice Jag Mohan Lal Sinha of Allahabad High Court was to give his judgement on the petition which Raj Narayan had filed against the prime minister’s election to the Lok Sabha in 1971… A member of parliament from Mrs Gandhi’s home State of Uttar Pradesh had gone to Allahabad and casually mentioned to Sinha whether he could do with Rs 50,000. Sinha did not respond. Later a colleague on the bench told him that he expected him to be elevated to the Supreme Court ‘after the judgement.’ Sinha merely looked at him with contempt. Efforts to delay the judgement had also failed. Joint secretary Prem Prakash Nayar in the Home Ministry met the chief justice of the UP high court in Dehradun and suggested to him that perhaps the judgement could be deferred till the Prime Minister ended her planned visit to some foreign countries-an unfavourable judgement could be embarrassing.

The Chief Justice passed on the request to Sinha. The judge was so annoyed that he immediately rang up the court’s registrar and asked him to announce that 12 June was the day of the judgement. Neither Seshan nor, for that matter, anyone but the judge and his stenographer seemed to know the verdict.

The intelligence bureau had drawn a blank. Some of its men had travelled all the way to Allahabad from New Delhi to try to persuade Negi Ram Nigam, Sinha’s stenographer, to talk. But he appeared to be formed in his master’s mould. Even threats had not worked.

And from the night of June 11, he and his wife were ‘missing’ from their house. They had no children and the intelligence men had found the house deserted.”