Emergency taught me some compromises were just not possible: Jaitley

Finance Minister said Emergency became a 'turning point' for him, 'perhaps the best political education' of his life

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the internal Emergency, imposed by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government in 1975, taught him that some compromises were just not possible. Jaitley was then a student leader who spent the entire duration of 19 months of Emergency in jail.

Jaitley reminisced about Emergency on the eve of the 39th anniversary of the event in an article he posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday. The Centre had imposed Emergency on June 26, 1975.

“The Emergency displayed the weakness of the Indian Constitutional order. The press could be silenced. The judiciary could be made pliable. Large number of opposition parties, including the Left either supported the Emergency or only put up a soft opposition against it. For us in prison, it was not clear as to how long we will be in detention,” Jaitley said.

During the Emergency, Fundamental Rights under Articles 14, 19, 21 and 22 were suspended. Newspapers were subjected to pre-censorship. Anti-government protests were not allowed and thousands of political workers arrested under preventive detention.

“The Supreme Court in perhaps the worst amongst the post independence judgments, in the Habeas Corpus case, ruled that even though political detainees have been illegally detained, they have no right to approach the court and seek relief,” Jaitley wrote, adding how the apex court became most pliable in the hands of the government of the day.

The minister said the Emergency became a “turning point” for him, “perhaps the best political education” of his life. “It taught me that some compromises were just not possible,” Jaitley said. Jaitley termed the Emergency “oppressive”, “perhaps the worst post-Independence chapter of the Indian democracy” and a “monstrosity”.

In the article, Jaitley recounted the events that led up to the clamping of Emergency. Jaitley, a young student leader then, attended a massive rally on June 25, 1975 at Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds that Jayaprakash Narayan addressed.

“After attending the rally, I came back home late in the evening,” Jaitley said. He was then a second year student of the Delhi University Law Faculty, president of the Delhi University Students’ Union and convener of JP’s Committee for Youth and Students Organisations.

“At about 2 am past midnight, I received a knock at my residence,” Jaitley said, reminiscing about how his lawyer father got into an argument with the police who had come to arrest him. “The police had simple instructions to arrest me - they did not know under which provision and for which offence. While this argument was on, I escaped from the backdoor and went to the friend’s house in the neighbourhood,” Jaitley said.

Jaitley phoned his colleagues to ascertain the developments. “In the morning, there were no newspapers. Electricity of the entire press at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg had been disconnected,” Jaitley said. The government had arrested the entire opposition political leadership and transferred them to jails in Delhi and Haryana.

Jaitley and fellow Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers organised a protest at the Delhi University at 10 am on June 26. “This was the only protest against the Emergency which took place that day in the whole country. An effigy was burned by us in protest,” he said.

Jaitley was arrested under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (Misa) and kept at the Tihar jail for eight days. He was transferred to the Ambala jail and three months later sent back to Tihar where he remained till the end of January 1977 for a period over 19 months. “I had been detained 19 months in prison under preventive detention. Needless to say I was deprived of my right to continue my education at Delhi,” he said.

The minister recounted how Indira Gandhi “proclaimed that an era of discipline had started”. He said Gandhi announced a 20-point economic programme comprising of ideas which were “most retrograde”. The then president of the Congress Dev Kant Barooah, “loyal to the 20-point programme of the dictator”, proclaimed “Indira is India and India is Indira”.

Jaitley recalled how not only political workers but film actors and musicians were punished when they dissented by refusing to perform for the Congress at its programmes. “Kishore Kumar’s songs were banned on All India Radio. Dev Anand’s films were not telecast by Doordarshan,” he said.