JP
MOVEMENT & EMERGENCY
By the beginning
of 1973 Indira Gandhi’s popularity began to decline. People’s expectations were
unfulfilled. Economic recession, unemployment, price rise and scarcity of
goods led to large-scale industrial unrest and a wave of strikes in different
parts of the country during 1972 and 1973,
culminating in an all-India railway strike in May 1974. Mrs. Gandhi’s
popularity among the workers was eroded further. The political situation was
worsened by the play of other factors. Congress had been declining as an
organization and proved incapable of dealing with the political crisis at the
state and grassroots levels.
CAUSES
Gujarat and
Bihar Unrest
A major upheaval
occurred in Gujarat in January 1974. For more than ten weeks the state faced virtual
anarchy with strikes, looting, rioting and arson, and efforts to force MLAs to
resign. By February , the central government was forced to ask the state
government to resign, suspend the assembly and impose President’s Rule in the
state. Indira Gandhi dissolved the assembly and announced fresh elections to it
in June.
The Bihar
movement was, however, characterized by two new features. Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, came out from political retirement, took over its
leadership, and gave a call for ‘Total Revolution’ or ‘a struggle against the
very system which has compelled almost every body to go corrupt’. It demand
resignation of the Congress government in Bihar and dissolution of the
assembly. The JP Movement attracted wide support especially from students,
middle classes, traders and a section of the intelligentsia.
The farvor of
the JP Movement, however, did not last long and it began to decline by the end
of 1974. Denouncing the JP Movement for its extra-parliamentary approach,
Indira Gandhi challenged JP to test their respective popularity in Bihar as
also the country as a whole in the coming general elections, due in February
–March 1976. JP accepted the challenge and his supporting parties decided to
form a National Coordination Committee for the purpose.
A sudden twist
to Indian politics was given by a judgement on 12 June 1975 by Justice Sinha of
the Allahabad High Court, on an election petition by Raj Narain, convicting Mrs.
Gandhi for having indulged in corrupt campaign practices and declaring her
election invalid. The conviction also meant that she could not seek election to
parliament or hold office for six y ears and therefore continue as prime
minister. Mrs. Gandhi refused to resign and appealed to the Supreme Court.
In a rally in Delhi on 25 June they announced that a nationwide one-week campaign of mass mobilization and civil disobedience to force Mrs. Gandhi to resign would be initiated on 29 June. Mrs. Gandhi’s lightning response was to declare a state of Internal Emergency on 26 June. The main justification of the JP Movement was that it arose to end corruption in Indian life and politics and and to defend democracy.
Indira Gandhi justified her action in imposing the Emergency in terms of national political interests and primarily on three grounds. First, India’s stability , security , integrity and democracy were in danger from the disruptive character of the JP Movement. Referring to JP’s speeches, she accused the opposition of inciting the armed forces to mutiny and the police to rebel. Second, there was the need to implement a programme of rapid economic development in the interests of the poor and the underprivileged. Third, she warned against intervention and subversion from abroad with the aim of weakening and destabilizing India.
FLAWS
OF JP MOVEMENT
The JP Movement
was flawed in many respects, in terms of both its composition and its actions
and the character and philosophy of its leader. Jayaprakash Narayan was
justly renowned for his integrity , lack of ambition for office, fearlessness,
selflessness and sacrifice and lifelong commitment to civil liberties and the
establishment of a just social order. But, ideologically , he was vague. The
nebulousness of JP’s politics and ideology is also illustrated by the fact that
he took the support of political parties and groups which had nothing in common
in terms of programme and policies and were ideologically incompatible.
In its later
phases, the movement depended for organization on the RSS–Jan Sangh. This
resulted in the political character of the movement also undergoing a major
change; not change of policies or of the state governments but the removal of
Indira Gandhi became the movement’s main goal. The agitational methods adopted
and propagated by the JP Movement were also extraconstitutional and
undemocratic. The adoption by a popular movement of the rhetoric of revolution
and of extra-legal and extraconstitutional and often violent agitational
methods is not compatible with the functioning of a democratic political system. The danger of authoritarianism did not come from Jayaprakash Narayan
who was not planning or giving direction to an authoritarian coup d’état. But
there were, as pointed out above, others around him who were so inclined and
who were increasingly coming to control the movement and who could capitalize
on his ideological woolliness and basically weak personality .
In fact, those
in the Opposition who wanted to defeat Mrs. Gandhi at the hustings had won out
in October–November 1974 when JP had accepted Mrs. Gandhi’s challenge to let the
next general elections decide the fate of his movement’s demands. But one year
or even six months is a long time in politics.
THE EMERGENCY & ITS FLAWS
The imposition of the Emergency by Mrs. Gandhi was also flawed. She was to claim later that faced with an extra-constitutional challenge she had no other option. Resigning, she said, would have strengthened the forces that were threatening the democratic process and bringing the country to the edge of anarchy and chaos. There was, moreover, no legal, political or moral reason why she should step down during the hearing of her appeal.
Ms. Gandhi
proclaimed a state of Internal Emergency under Article 352 of the constitution
on the morning of 26 June, suspending the normal political processes, but
promising to return to normalcy as soon as conditions warranted it.
The proclamation
suspended the federal provisions of the constitution and Fundamental Rights and
civil liberties. The government imposed strict censorship on the Press and
stifled all protest and opposition to the government. In the early hours of 26
June, hundreds of the main leaders of the Opposition were arrested under the
Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). Among those arrested were Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Congress
dissidents such as Chandra Shekhar. Several academics, newspapermen, trade
unionists and student leaders were also put behind bars.
A large number
of people were impressed by the positive outcome pf the emergency because there
was less crime in the cities, there was calm and tranquility on the campuses
as students and teachers went back to classrooms, there was also an immediate
and general improvement in administration of the Government etc.
Within a few
months, however, the people started getting disillusioned with the Emergency .
Agricultural output declined and there was inflation, this affect all but the
poor were most affected. . By April 1976, Sanjay Gandhi emerged as a parallel
authority , interfering at will in the working of the government and
administration. Pushed by Sanjay Gandhi, the government decided to promote
family planning more vigorously and even in an arbitrary , illegitimate and
authoritarian manner. The most affected were the rural and urban poor who often
protested in all sorts of every day way s, including recourse to flight, hiding
and rioting.
RESULT
Surprise
Elections 1977
On 18 January
1977, Mrs. Gandhi suddenly announced that elections to the Lok Sabha would be
held in March. She also simultaneously released political prisoners, removed
press censorship and other restrictions on political activity such as holding
of public meetings. Political parties were allowed to campaign freely . The
elections were held on 16 March in a free and fair atmosphere, and when the
results came in it was clear that Congress had been thoroughly defeated. Both
Mrs. Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi lost their seats. Mrs. Gandhi issued a statement
accepting the verdict of the people with ‘due humility ’.
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