The date was 25 June 1975. Just before the clock struck midnight, then-President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declared a state of emergency. The then-Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, went to the All India Radio (AIR) office in the early hours of the morning on 26 June 1975 and announced, “The President has proclaimed the Emergency. This is nothing to panic about. I am sure you are all aware of the deep and widespread conspiracy, which has been brewing ever since I began to introduce certain progressive measures of benefit for the common man and woman in India.”
The Emergency is considered the “darkest period” in Indian democracy as the fundamental rights were suspended, among which the right to speech and expression, that empowers the press to speak and write in a nation, was bashed too.
A total of 253 reporters were sent to jail under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), writes Rakesh Sinha in his book Raajneetik Patrakarita. Seven foreign correspondents were expelled, and 29 were banned from entering India.
The largest newspapers in the nation had power cut-offs on the night of 25 June 1975, while newspaper presses across the nation were raided and stopped. As a result, all major newspapers could not be published for the next few days.
When all became well and the newspapers started publishing again, The Indian Express, The Statesman, and several others lodged their protest against the government by using the metaphor of blank editorials to indicate the censorship of the press imposed by Indira Gandhi.
The reporting of all domestic and international news without the consent of the government was prohibited, and accreditation was withdrawn from more than 46 reporters, 2 cartoonists, and 6 photographers who normally covered the capital. Kuldip Nayar, an internationally prominent journalist, was also arrested under MISA.
The oil crisis of 1973, which was caused by the attack of Egypt on Israel, led to a rise in oil import prices, which eventually affected the nation’s budget in a negative sense. The Bihar movement and Gujarat Navnirman Andolan of 1974, both against corruption and misrule, along with the strike of Indian Railways workers in the same year due to stagnant long working hours of locomotive staff, contributed to the build-up of anti-Indira protests.
On 12 June 1975, the Allahabad High Court, in The State of Uttar Pradesh vs. Raj Narain case, convicted Mrs. Gandhi of indulging in corrupt campaigning practices in the Lok Sabha elections of 1971 and declared her election null and void.
Gandhi moved to the Supreme Court challenging Allahabad HC’s order, and the apex court delivered a stay on the verdict on 24 June 1975.
Since the political and economic situation was not in her favor, and also because of the case, she would have got scared of losing the Prime Minister’s chair if the SC’s verdict wouldn’t come in her favor, hence imposing the Emergency, which lasted over a period of 21 months.
Mrs. Gandhi was a person of an authoritarian nature and was intolerant in taking criticism against her government. From her early days, she wanted to have a hold over the press. The press was too critical of her ways, and hence she went about to change its approach.
Coomi Kapoor, who was a journalist with The Indian Express, stated, “Mrs. Gandhi deeply resented the fact that almost all the major newspapers in their editorials had advised her to step down after the Allahabad judgment. Perhaps that was the reason for press censorship during the entire Emergency period and the heavy cudgels on journalists.”
Since at that time, the radio and television were already controlled by the government, it was only the press that was independent. With the imposition of Emergency, this independence was also taken away.
The initial response of the print media included a concern for the loss of freedom of speech and expression as highlighted in Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution, but later, most of the mainstream newspapers accepted the status quo.
Now, if we compare the above-mentioned situations with the current scenario, where no emergency has been imposed, the independent news media such as The Wire, The Quint, Scroll, etc., are running freely, day in and day out, criticizing and bashing PM Modi, and yet no action is being taken against them like it used to happen during the Indira-led Congress government.
Do you actually think there is press censorship?
(The author has requested anonymity)
