16/02/2017: Lecture 15 – Emergency (1)

Introduction to Types of Emergencies

There are three articles in the constitution of India which speak about the provisions of the
emergency in India.

Article 356:State

A state emergency occurs when The Vidhan Sabha and Parishad are declared non
efficient/unworthy of governance or the working of the state machinery is going wrong. Eg:
Jaylalitha stepping down as Cm due to disproportionate assets case etc. In a state
emergency, the governor becomes the ruler of the state and he rules via the president
thereby giving it the name President’s Rule. Sometimes in this case, troops are deployed as
well because there is a threat of conflict.

Almost every state has had a state emergency. Maharashtra had one in 2014 when BJP won
elections, and Shiv Sena decided to pull out of coalition. This 14 day window was a state
emergency. Only in few cases like Kashmir state emergency gets clubbed with military rule,
otherwise a regular citizen would not even know of a state emergency being declared as it
doesn’t affect day to day life much.

Article 360: Financial

India has never had a financial emergency. We came very close to it once. India till 1990
worked as a cooperative system, and had only tie ups and collaborations with investors.
There was no concept of a direct investment via FDI. Because there was no investment, no
new capital came in and India was neck deep in debt. We took loads from the World Bank
and IMF. These loans have to be repaid in a more complicated manner. The interest
demanded is in kind, such as – open your country to set up our units. We were in such a
crisis, that we did not have importing money for anything.

We mortgaged 70 tonnes of gold to Britain. The World Bank said they didn’t trust India to
make this kind of money, and their policies had to be re-structured in the form of
Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. People from BSE were sent on paid leave, and
World Bank officials filled in to re-structure India’s economic policies. The RBI and
government had no idea about what kinds of policies were being drafted. Overnight we
went from being socialist to capitalist. On a consumeristic basis, India prospered, however
the amount of disparity between people increased. The problems of the 1st world and 3rd
world began to co-exist in India. While some parts were dealing with obesity, some others
were dealing with survival and food. India suffered, but all Indians did not. Some Indians
prospered.

There was only one more option, either take the loan, or invoke financial emergency. In a
financial emergency, all public sector employees get their salaries cut down to half or 1/3 rd,
and prices of supplies are cut down as well. This would have been for 6 months + an
extension if need be. This extension would just make the party in power look bad. This
choice between the 2 options was made by Manmohan Singh which makes him important in
the decision. He too however did not know about what kind of re-structuring the World
Bank was doing.

Article 352: National

National emergency can be evoked when India’s sovereignty has to be threatened, it must
cease to exist. Instances when this has been done are as follows:

1. 1962 Indo-China war [Nehru] – This emergency was kept going in 1965 in the Indo-
Pak war as well. It went on finally till 1968. These emergencies entail curfews for
your own good. Food is rationed. Ration cards become important to avoid hoarding.
The whole thing is from a security point of view.

2. 1971 – Indo –Pak for Bangladesh

3. Neither of these emergencies are considered to be outrage. Whenever Indian

National Emergency is spoken of, the Indira Gandhi emergency is referred to.

Indian Politics Before Emergency

Nehru died in 1964. Shastri became the next PM who died in 1965. 1965 – Nehru was
supposed to complete his term. The next PM is Indira Gandhi and she serves a full term
1966-71. In 1971, India is again gearing up for elections, and IG is contesting for a 2 nd term.
She stands from Rai Bareily. She wins convincingly. Her main oppose is Raj Narain, from
Labour Party – a Rai Bareily Candidate. After losing, he puts a case against IG in the
Alahabad High Court. The accusation is that she won using unfair means to contest these
elections as she used resources from her previous term as PM. This is a very serious
accusation.

The Trigger to National Emergency

The Allahbad highcourt gives the verdict in June 1975 after 4 years. The verdict is that she
was guilty. The charges however are silly and trivial even though the accusation was serious.
Eg she asked local policeman to help her with the mike which is wrong. She needs to step
down within 2 weeks. Raj Narain became an overnight success. Either elections would be
held, or an interim PM would have to be brought in. She raised the issue to the Supreme
Court thereby getting a stay order. The CM of Bengal, Sidharth Shankar Ray gives her the
advice to re-invoke national emergency for an internal cause. A PM being asked to leave
midway also leaves the country leaderless which itself threatens its sovereignty. This cannot
go via the parliament as they parliament may not agree to it at all. Once invoked however,
you don’t need them. She invokes national emergency in June 1975. An emergency is asked
for by the PM on behalf of the Lok Sabha and is sanctioned by the President. In this period
our President was Fakrudin Ali Ahmad. He was gullible and would just sign. He agreed with
the PM saying that she is bringing democracy to a halt.

National Emergency Declared + Happenings

She says, the scenario is unique -the supreme office of the country has been accused of
corruption and she had been targeted by anti-national Indians. When India is under threat,
Fundamental rights cannot be upheld. Food, clothing, shelter and habeas corpus (the right
to your physical existence) – all were snatched. These rights are called ‘’god given’’ in the
US constitution. This cannot be snatched by ANYBODY, making capital punishment a big
issue. Indian constitution however grants Habeas Corpus via the constitution, and not via
god. The rights of the whole country were temporarily suspended, and if you are killed
during this time, nobody can do anything about it because they didn’t have a right to live in
the first place. The police had authority. IG said she rules by Decree, she can change the
constitution. Oppose her and see what happens. You can be killed, unquestioned. There
isn’t even any media. You have NO rights.

Brutality

A student in Chennai called P Charan was protesting outside college, he was Lathee Charged
and died. A case was registered but not as murder, as accident. If anybody died during this
period, it would be called an accident. The Supreme Court could not do anything about the
situation because the laws are not made here, they are just applied here. A law has to be
made and passed in the parliament. IG also took away people’s access to the SC. You had to
go via the Pm to register anything. Even the CJI did not have the right to life. Soon, IG was
declared clean of all charges.

Sanjay Gandhi

The person calling all the shots was not even a part of the Parliament – her son, Sanjay
Gandhi. Completely arbitrary decisions were taken. People were evicted from slums for
beautification, people were sterilized on the pretext of being vaccinated. People stopped
trusting all forms of medical treatment sponsored by the government. In the 80’s there was
a vaccination. Polio remained with India because of this. Birth Control was the demon. Even
talking about it was seen leading to ‘’Nasbandi’’ conducted in brutal ways by people who
were not even sanctioned medical practitioners. Sanjay Gandhi tried to get in Volkswagen.
They Refuse. He then goes to Suzuki, and tells them that Volkswagen has given them a deal,
and manages to get a better deal. Industry of automobiles picked up because there was no
corruption barrier.It was Sanjay Gandhi who also convinced his mother to stop the
emergency as enough progress had been made. Also, in case the army would retaliate
against this kind of rule, the country didn’t stand a chance and would go under military rule.
You have to re-hold elections for some kind of credibility to come back.
Re-Elections

IG holds elections, and runs from Rai Bareily. The congress loses almost all over the country
because it is opposing ALL other parties which have come together as the Janata Party.
There are 3 people who contested the emergency Era. Morarjee Desai, the man to follow IG
as PM. Atal Bihari Vajpayee – the next international affairs minister and Chaudhary Charan
Singh. . The JP head was Morarjee Desai and his term started in 1977. As soon as he came
into the picture, he was ridiculed.

Other Nations and Their Stances

While China and Pakistan were unhappy with the emergency period because this made the
uncertainity of war being declared by IG higher, America was happy because as miserably as
the socialist-communist system would fail, more the Indians would want to reach out to a
capitalist way of life. This is why they began humiliating Morarjee Desai in order to make
them take to better American ways. An intense PR campaign is launched by the Congress
and America. The ridicule is massive. Morarjee Desai loses support of his own party. He is
asked to step down, and has no backing. He steps down after 2 years. Chaudhary Charan
Singh is asked to prove majority and he lasts for 13 days. Here on, the party itself crumbles.
The first attempt by a non congress party had completely fallen apart.