Never forget the dark days of Emergency
June 26 being the 41st anniversary of the national Emergency, the call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stress on people's power and the strength of the core credentials of democracy is once again a stark reminder to the people of this country the power of resilience inbuilt in democracy. The extraordinary faith of the people on democratic institutions finally led to the ouster of the Indira Gandhi Government in less than two years since June 26, 1975. This rightly brings home the message that vox populi vox dei and no Government how powerful it might be, could never take its people for a ride for long. As the Emergency was on, Gandhi initiated a slew of measures that manifest the ways in which the law enforcement and protective agencies of the state set aside the parliamentary procedures and constitutional safeguards to make exclusive rooms for state terror even against her own party colleagues.
This Emergency was largely understood as a systemic failure purely based on Gandhi's perception of threat to her leadership from both within and outside the Congress. Besides, it reflected a deep crisis simmering in the Indian political system which could either be describes as Bonapartism or as a failure of the Nehruvian model of modernisation. It also raises a pertinent question today whether the emergency was a reaction to counter the undergoing structural strains of a defining period of India's democracy. However, her intentions clearly displayed that she sought legitimacy in being seen not only as the daughter but also as the sole legitimate successor of Nehru.
This implies her disapproval and disregard for the older generation of Congressmen who banked on a typical Gandhian and Nehruvian style of functioning, claiming to be the custodian of the party's long held ethos. Deep down, many realised that Gandhi forced her to stick to the form, not the substance of democracy which so fervently her father espoused around the world. At a time when there was bleak hope for a return to the pre-Emergency parliamentary democracy deemed inconceivable, Emergency loomed large as a permanent kind of a political situation which evoked a renewed fight to finish one party authoritarianism in India.
Yet arguably Gandhi was not attempting to pervert the political system permanently, but had a strong leaning for democratic authoritarianism. Her stint in Emergency had sternly reminded India for marching towards a progressive shift from the monolithic power structure built by the Congress and also making room for a national democratic direction wherein non-Congress elements emerging across the political spectrum of the country could be recognised. The most disturbing trend was that at times Gandhi was either not known or had lost control over the arrests made or decisions taken on critical matters which were becoming an affair solidly wrested by her palace coterie. Thus, the process of Emergency was brought into action in a masterly manner. As Delhi gradually came under the control of the palace, even State Governments, barring a few, started accepting the new atmosphere by falling into the orbit, signaling a grave crisis of governance that demanded an immediate return to normalcy. Fortunately, this third Emergency of independent India, ended on March 21, 1977.