New Delhi, June 24 (PTI) M R Wadhwa was working on a project in the Mathura Road in 1975 when he received a letter that "shockingly" demoted him and 15 other civic engineers by a rank -- a direct consequence of the Emergency directives.
Now 89, the retired engineer with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said that the letter changed everything. He was among those caught in the bureaucratic crossroads brought in by those in power.
"Everyone was dancing to the tune of politicians," he said.
Wadhwa, who joined the MCD in September 1961, was posted in the city zone and was among the officials involved in the Turkman Gate demolition -- a sudden and forceful eviction drive carried out under Sanjay Gandhi’s urban beautification mission in April 1976.
He acknowledged that while some Emergency initiatives had merit, the methods used were deeply flawed. "There was chaos. People were evicted overnight," he said.
Wadhwa said that in such situations, officials should not be entirely blamed, as the pressure came from the highest levels. Many decisions were made without formal written orders -- officials were simply following verbal instructions.
"Since the administration was dancing to the tune of people like Sanjay Gandhi …., who were powerful figures at the time, then what could the officials do?" he asked.
"There were people whose single gesture was enough -- one command, a finger pointed at anything or anyone and action would be taken without explanation. They would just say: 'Do this' -- and it had to be done," Wadhwa said, adding that the Turkman Gate demolition was not a planned move.
"Turkman Gate, Naya Bazar, Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid, and Matia Mahal were all heavily populated areas. One day, Sanjay Gandhi happened to pass by and pointed towards Turkman Gate. The very next day, demolitions began, and the area was cleared within days," he said.
According to him, bureaucrats had no choice but to follow instructions coming from the top.
"People like then-Commissioner B R Tamta were just following orders from political authorities. So were we. Our superiors were blindly following politicians, and we were expected to do the same."
Recalling the atmosphere and the pressure within the government machinery during the Emergency, Wadhwa said, “The way the Emergency came was sudden and shocking. We were out in the field, working on a project at Mathura Road, when we received a letter — and that letter changed everything.”
He said they received a letter that demoted 16 engineers, including himself, by one rank — a direct consequence of Emergency-era directives. “It was demoralising. We hadn’t done anything wrong, but we were penalised. That’s how the Emergency reached us,” he said.
Wadhwa also recalled how family planning efforts turned coercive and said "It wasn’t done with planning or compassion. It was an abuse of power.”
"Officials were given targets -- 100 cases each. If you didn’t meet them, you were punished. One of my colleagues had three daughters and was transferred for that. He wasn’t allowed to have a fourth child," he said. "That’s not how family planning should be done. It has to be about awareness, not force,” he added.
Wadhwa said that some officials acted unethically to secure promotions, showing how power was misused under pressure. "Even without official orders, things were done just because someone from the top had said it. That’s how it worked then."
While work pressure is a normal part of governance, what happened during the Emergency went far beyond the usual. "The pressure back then came with no checks and balances. Orders were followed blindly. We couldn’t question anything," he said.
He further said that although some of the initiatives taken during that time had good intentions, the planning and execution were completely flawed. "Certain things were implemented in ways that should never have been forced upon the public."
The Emergency declared, citing internal and external threats to national security, lasted for 21 months. During the time civil liberties were suspended, the press was censored and mass arrests along with forced sterilisations took place under government orders.
The Emergency officially ended in 1977 after Indira Gandhi called for a general election and released several imprisoned political leaders. The Janata Party, a coalition of opposition groups led by Morarji Desai, won the election with Desai becoming the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.