'Emergency no longer possible in digital era'

Union Minister Arun Jaitley recalled how he was arrested on the eve of June 25, 1975, after which the Emergency was proclaimed and that Emergency is no longer possible in digital era. He also pointed at the amendments to the Constitution which would not allow an individual to be arrested without a cause. 

The Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information and Broadcasting, while speaking at the launch of Coomi Kapoor’s book The Emergency: A Personal History at hotel Taj Mahal, talked about his days as a student leader during the censorship period.“We had finished a rally addressed by political leader Jaiprakash Narayan at Ram leela Maidan and about two days before the rally there was a meeting of all Opposition parties at the Gandhi Peace Foundation. At that meeting, we had decided to go on a satyagrah on the 29th to force Indira Gandhi to resign as the Prime Minister because she was only granted a conditional stay by the Supreme Court. When we were arrested in midnight, none of us had realised that the emergency had been proclaimed. We all assumed that it was due to the satyagrah that we had been planning. When we finally heard the broadcast on radio of what had happened, we were stupefied,” he said.

He also added, “When we were taken to the prison, it was filled with detainees who were divided into two lines, one where people were arrested under MISA and other where they were imprisoned under some provision of the CRPF. Then it started sinking in of what was actually happening - censorship, en masse arrests and people being tortured in prisons. What worried me most was that not even a single policeman got up and claimed that he wouldn’t register a false FIR on the basis of which citizens were getting arrested.”

luminaries like Kuldip Nayar, veteran journalist and human rights activist; Anil Divan, senior advocate and Swapan Dasgupta, senior journalist and historian, stalwarts in their own fields were also present at the launch.Kapoor’s book is a poignant piece that recreates the drama and the horror of the Emergency,  incorporating her personal experiences of that dark period as well. The author, who is a celebrated political journalist commented, “It was a difficult time for my family and me and many others suffered the same fate like us. My main motive to publish this book now is that I want the younger generations to know about the Emergency. Also, I want my readers to take back the message that eternal vigilance is the price for freedom.”