In 1975, when she declared Emergency, late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was not aware of its Constitutional provisions and it was her trusted advisor Siddhartha Shankar Ray who led her into the decision. Disclosing this in his book The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi
Years released online on Thursday, President Pranab Mukherjee said that the Emergency was perhaps an “avoidable event” and “Congress and Indira Gandhi had to pay a heavy price for this misadventure.”
Mukherjee, who celebrated his 79th birthday on Thursday, says: “The Dramatic Decade is the first of a trilogy; this book covers the period between 1969 and 1980...I intent to deal with the period between 1980 and 1998 in volume II, and the period between 1998 and 2012, which marked the end of my active political career, in volume III.”
About his own role in the imposition of Emergency, Mukherjee says: “It will be sufficient to say here that many of us who were part of the Union Cabinet at that time (I was a junior Minister) did not then understand its deep and far-reaching impact.”
Giving an insider’s view of those turbulent times, Mukherjee claims that Indira did not know the Constitutional provision on Emergency and acted solely on the advice of the then West Bengal Chief Minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray, who was also a member of the CWC and Central Parliamentary Board.
“Indira Gandhi told me subsequently that she was not even aware of the Constitutional provisions allowing for the declaration of a state of Emergency on grounds of internal disturbance, particularly since a state of Emergency had already been proclaimed as a consequence of Indo-Pak conflict in 1971”, he says.
“Siddhartha babu had considerable influence over the decision-making process of the organisation and administration...In matters relating to West Bengal, he was the decisive voice. So it was not surprising that he was privy to considerable information...,” the President says in the book.
Incidentally, it was Ray, then Chief Minister of West Bengal, who also took a sharp about-turn on the authorship of the Emergency before the Shah Commission that went into the “excesses” during that period and disowned that decision, says Mukherjee.
In his 321-page book, Mukherjee has dealt with a diverse range of subjects, including the liberation of Bangladesh, JP Movement, Congress debacle in the 1977 elections, split in Congress and Indira’s return to power in 1980.
While critical about the fallout of the Emergency, Mukherjee also points out that it brought discipline in public life, a growing economy, controlled inflation, a reversed trade deficit for the first time, enhanced developmental expenditure and a crackdown on tax evasion and smuggling, but “it was perhaps an avoidable event.”
However, suspension of fundamental rights and political activity (including trade union activity), large-scale arrests of political leaders and activists, Press censorship and extending the life of legislatures by not conducting elections were some instances of Emergency that adversely affected the interests of the people, he said, adding, “The Congress and Indira Gandhi had to pay a heavy price for this misadventure.”
At the same time, he also terms the JP movement as “directionless.” Mukherjee says while a host of people backed the imposition of Emergency, they took a sharp about-turn while deposing before the Shah Commission, which went into the excesses committed during the Emergency.
“Not only did they disown their involvement, they pinned all the blame on Indira Gandhi pleading their own innocence. Siddhartha babu was no exception. Deposing before the Shah Commission, he ran into Indira Gandhi, draped in a crimson sari that day, in the Commission hall and tossed a sprightly remark: “You look pretty today.” “Despite your efforts,” retorted a curt Indira Gandhi,” Mukherjee writes.
Talking about the Shah Commission proceedings, Mukherjee says: “Suffice it to say that it seemed that the Commission was collecting material and information only to substantiate a pre-conceived conclusion.”
Recalling instances of Congress leaders and bureaucrats deposing before the Commission and blaming Indira Gandhi “alone” for the imposition of the Emergency and for not taking the Cabinet into confidence, Mukherjee points out to the then Home Minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy’s testimony.
“Reddy told the panel that he was called by the Prime Minister at 10.30 pm and was told that on account of the deteriorating law and order situation, it was necessary to impose an internal Emergency,” Mukherjee writes, adding, “Reddy told the Prime Minister that the powers already available under the existing Emergency could be availed of to deal with the situation, but was overruled by Indira Gandhi saying internal Emergency was considered necessary.”
“Reddy told the Commission that he then signed a letter to the President of the Republic and appended the draft proclamation of Emergency for the President’s assent with this letter. The letter signed by Reddy was on a plain sheet of paper and not on the letter head of the Home Minister of India,” he says.