OPINION: 1975 Emergency holds lessons for today's opposition parties

Lawyer Aditya Manubarwala argues degeneration of the national discourse is seen today

File-photo-indira-gandhi File photo of Indira Gandhi

June 25, 1975, is eternally etched as one of the darkest days in the history of independent India. Much has been said and written about the National Emergency declared by then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975... about the atrocities on the opposition, the assaults on the Constitution and the mockery of democracy itself. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comments on the Emergency bring to the fore memories of this inglorious event.

In 2016, L.K. Advani said India is still susceptible to an Emergency. Many have expressed concern that the second term of Prime Minister Modi, with an even bigger absolute majority, could lead to a dictatorship. However, in my opinion, it would augur well for the opposition of the day, and not the ruling party, to learn a few lessons from the egregious violations of the democratic system that India witnessed in the 1970s.

On June 12, 1975, justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court held Indira Gandhi guilty of misusing government machinery. Justice Sinha declared the election verdict in the Rae Bareilly constituency—held by Gandhi—null and void and barred Gandhi from holding elected office for six years.

When the matter reached the Supreme Court on June 24, justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, the vacation judge, granted Gandhi a conditional stay; she could continue as prime minister and as Member of Parliament but could not participate in parliamentary proceedings. This conditional stay was granted until August, when a full bench of the Supreme Court was to hear her appeal. From this point onward, there were two possibilities—first, that the Supreme Court would uphold the Allahabad High Court’s judgment and Gandhi would cease to hold public office and second, that the Supreme Court would fall to Gandhi’s influence, something which she had begun to exert since A.N. Ray’s appointment as chief justice of India and overturn justice Sinha’s judgment.

However, prior to either of these eventualities coming into being, on June 25, Jayprakash Narayan, who was regarded as being ‘the Gandhi of independent India’, launched what would come to be known as the ‘J.P. Revolution’. He announced a plan of daily demonstrations, not only in Delhi but also in state capitals and district headquarters across the country. Narayan appealed to the police force, bureaucracy and Army to disobey Gandhi and obey the Constitution instead. This appeal gave Gandhi the excuse she needed to swing her plans into motion and declare a state of internal emergency on the night of June 25, citing a threat to national security due to internal disturbances.

Had Narayan and his supporters, certainly champions of a just cause, waited till the Supreme Court heard Gandhi’s appeal in August, there was a possibility, no matter how minuscule, that the judgment of the Allahabad High Court would have been upheld and the Emergency averted altogether. The second, and agreeably greater, possibility would have been that either the Supreme Court would have overturned the Allahabad High Court judgment or Gandhi would have made it impossible for them to hear the appeal by amending the Constitution, which she indeed did by means of the 41st Amendment after imposing the Emergency. In this case, the inevitable would have occurred and Narayan could have then given his call for 'total revolution'.

However, there was a small ray of hope that the great evil that Indira Gandhi brought about in India for 19 long months could have been averted, if only the Supreme Court would have been allowed to hear the appeal.

The lesson that today’s opposition parties must learn from this is that merely ranting about how the government can potentially become tyrannical is pointless if democratic institutions are not allowed to fully discharge their functions. The opposition must allow democratic institutions a chance to perform their functions freely. Only when justice is not done and an unholy nexus between two organs of the government is seen, should a hue and cry be raised.

In case of the Emergency, Justice Iyer had already shown that he, at least, would not buckle to political pressure by only granting Gandhi a conditional stay and not the absolute stay that she expected, indicating that the streams of justice were not as polluted as one would think.

The opposition of the day must realise that constructive criticism is the need of the hour and not the destructive obstructionism that is rampant in this day and age. A degeneration of the national discourse is being seen today in India. The opposition parties have laid siege to independent democratic institutions. Wild and ludicrous allegations were made against fiercely independent institutions like the Election Commission (EC), with claims that the EC turned a blind eye towards alleged tampering of electronic voting machines by the BJP.

The Congress did not even spare the office of the chief justice of India (CJI) by bringing a frivolous motion seeking the impeachment of former chief justice Dipak Mishra.

Political expediency and vested interests should be set aside and the sanctity of the democratic process and development should be the sole concerns of the opposition. The present scenario of compulsive resistance and relentless attacks on independent democratic institutions like the EC and Supreme Court by the opposition parties just in order to grind political axes with the ruling party is condemnable.

Keeping in mind the hasty decision or two that the opposition took during the Emergency, the opposition of today holds a greater responsibility towards letting democratic institutions function freely and subsequently in reviewing their actions and holding them accountable.

Aditya Manubarwala works as a law clerk-cum-research assistant at the Supreme Court of India.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.