Notes from the Underground

The midnight knock that doused democracy and the saga of underground resistance

- R Balashankar

IT is a quirk of destiny that Rahul Gandhi never gets tired of accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of undermining democracy, forgetting that Modi led an underground movement in Gujarat in 1975 when Rahul's grandmother, Indira Gandhi, imposed Emergency and suspended all civil rights and jailed thousands of political leaders. Perhaps Rahul Gandhi does not know what Indira Gandhi did to Indian democracy.

A large percentage of Indians who are below the age of 65 may not have witnessed the midnight knock that had doused the flame of democracy in India 49 years ago. That was the most draconian step taken by any prime minister who was shown to the office by the Constitution. Reputed constitutional expert of that time, Nani Palkhivala, had then said that the Indian Constitution was defeated, distorted and derailed. This was the night when dozens of editors were jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). Hundreds of leading Indian politicians were woken up at midnight and taken to unknown destinations to jail them, denying all democratic rights the Constitution had provided. This was the night when censor agents appeared in every editorial office of newspapers, weeklies and other publications, and editors were asked to remove their editorials and rewrite new ones praising the Emergency. Many editors, who refused to obey, left their editorials blank, as it happened with The Indian Express, The Statesman and many other regional language dailies.