The 40th anniversary of the Emergency on June 25 provides an occasion for introspection on the state of democracy and civil liberties in India. Senior BJP leader Shri LK Advani's telling interview in a national daily has set the ball rolling (hyperlink). It would be appropriate that all files relating to the Emergency are declassified so that young people can learn more of the history of democracy and dictatorship in our country.
The Emergency was a naked subversion of the Constitution to protect the power of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The basic pillars of any functioning democracy - a strong Opposition, a free press, an independent judiciary and the citizens' right to dissent and protest - were all targeted. Thousands were arrested. No one knew how long the Emergency would last. But as it was, the dictatorship lasted 19 months, the dictator was forced to hold elections and was, along with her sycophants, swept out of power.
At the time of the Emergency, Indira Gandhi had a two-thirds majority in Parliament. She had cultivated a pro-poor image through earlier significant steps like the abolition of privy purses and the nationalization of banks. Her slogan of "
garibi hatao" gave her a landslide victory in the 1971 general elections, followed by the creation of a larger-than-life image after the Bangladesh war.
But soon enough, the majority she achieved through elections became a license to show contempt for the Opposition, to ride roughshod over Parliamentary norms,and to centralize all powers in the PMO, making short shrift of the Cabinet form of governance. The tendencies towards authoritarianism were apparent long before the proclamation of the Emergency.
West Bengal was the prime example of an undeclared emergency, where the state government under SS Ray unleashed a reign of state-backed terror on Congress opponents, primarily the Left. It was no coincidence, as recently unearthed archival material shows, that it was Ray who gave the first written advice to Indira Gandhi regarding the grounds she should use for proclamation of Emergency.
Another important feature was the growth of the cult of the individual and the marginalisation of all other leaders within the ruling party, except for a sycophantic coterie. Earlier, the Congress had boasted of a range of equally respected leaders in the states, but they were all cut down to size. When a ruling party reduces itself to a mere shadow of its supreme leader, democratic norms are bound to suffer.
The third feature was her aggressive hostility to organised movements of the people whether trade unions, student organisations or others. The frequent use of the police and repression against democratically-organised struggles of the people and particularly workers, such as against the historic railway workers' strike, was the build up to the Emergency.
A combination of factors led to swift alienation from the people and the decline of her popularity was widespread, leading to events which ultimately ended with the promulgation of Emergency.
Forty years later, a different context, different players, but many similar features. No wonder LK Advani lamented that he had no confidence that Emergency cannot happen again and more significantly that "forces that can crush democracy are stronger..."
We have, after three decades, a party with a single majority in Parliament. But within one year of its rule, disturbing trends are visible. The use of the Parliamentary majority to dilute Parliamentary procedures, the tendency to bulldoze all opposition, the preference for rule by ordinance is there for all to see. We are witness to a process underway of overriding centralisation of power in the hands of an individual. The PMO under Narendra Modi seems to be surpassing the record on this score of Indira Gandhi, even to the extent of appointment of staff in ministers' offices!
Quite like what happened in the Congress, the BJP, a party that boasted of its "difference" and its "collective leadership", seems to be reduced to a one man and his shadow-show in its methods of functioning.
The government is vindictively going after individuals and organisations to teach them a lesson because they dared to challenge injustice. There is continuous and shameful harassment of human right defenders. At the same time, working class and
kisan organisations are not consulted on issues which affect every aspect of their lives and living. The Mining Bill, for example, will lead to coercive displacement of
adivasis, but was pushed through without any consultation with their organisations or elected representatives.
But there are two important differences between then and now.
The structural fault lines of India's democracy lie in its obscene social and economic inequalities. These fault lines have become all the more dominant with the aggressive push of economic policies that equate national interests with those of big business, which in the name of liberalisation, seek to transfer national and natural resources for private profit.
This has had its own impact on the serious erosion of democratic values and principles.
During UPA-2 and now much more under the Modi dispensation, favoured business leaders have more direct access to power and policy decision-making, including as members of Parliament, than ever before. Big money and cronyism are the hallmarks of politics today which constitutes one of the greatest threats to democracy.
The second big difference is the much more powerful offensive of communal politics than during Indira Gandhi's time. The Modi government has been aptly described as a joint venture, with the majority shareholder being the RSS. The intensification of attacks on the minority communities and the aggressive pursuit of the Hindutva sectarian agenda by fronts of the Sangh Parivar constitute a direct assault on democracy and the Constitutional guarantee of equal rights for all citizens. Of great concern is the growth of fundamentalist forces within minority communities.
A combination of corporate power and communal politics represented by the Modi government provides a fertile breeding ground for authoritarianism to develop and flourish.
The people of India had fought and succeeded in reversing the Emergency. The only guarantee against the return of those dark days is to recognize from which direction the danger to democracy emanates and to build up a fearless democratic resistance.
(
Brinda Karat is a Politburo member of the CPI(M) and a former Member of the Rajya Sabha.)
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