Is INDIA heading towards another EMERGENCY ???

This blog comes from nowhere, I had not planned to write this……………...

I am reading about ‘Operation Blue Star’ since past few months; to dig out the truth of that time, I am reading about the political environment which prevailed during that period of time. To that, what got my attention is - State of Emergency in India (1975 – 76).  I never heard about it before, so this is the time to know about it, and I turned on my Google driver. The outcome of ‘the know how’ of this event is very strange and you must also think about it.….

The Congress Party of India has been historically associated with the Indian politics from the budding independence movement so are the charges of corruption and miss-trust on the congress party. In 1966 after the death of Lal Bahdur Shastri, Indira Gandhi (daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru), was selected as the President of the Indian National Congress Party. In 1966 Mrs. Gandhi defeated Moraji Desai to become the fifth Prime Minister of India and the first woman to hold that position.

From the early 1970s onwards, pervasive discontent shook India: large sections of the population came out in demonstrations against rising prices, fall in the supply of essential commodities, unemployment, and more importantly, corruption in government administration. These protests reached a crescendo in 1974, with students leading the agitations and giving them an organized shape. The Gujarat state government ruled by Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party was forced to resign that year. Mrs. Gandhi realized that she was losing her hold, and was threatened by a political crisis. The threat became imminent when the Allahabad high court (from where Indira Gandhi won in the parliamentary election in 1971), declared her election invalid on corruption charges. The high court judgment barred her from holding the office of prime minister, but granted a stay for 20 days – to allow her party to choose another leader (since the Congress party still enjoyed a majority in the Indian parliament).

Unable to find a competent successor, Mrs. Gandhi, appealed for “complete and absolute” stay and she was granted a “conditional stay”.  This decision gave rise to outcries of opposition from the opposition that she should resign.  Strikes by labour and trade unions, student unions and government unions swept across the country. In response, the authority of the maintenance of Internal Security Act was used to arrest more than a hundred people on June 26th who opposed Mrs. Gandhi and her party.  A proclamation of Emergency was issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on the advice of Prime Minister Gandhi.

The powers given to the Central Government under this form of emergency virtually have no limits. Civil Liberties were suspended and the government introduced a mandatory birth control program. The government of India banned four major religious, political and revolutionary parties and 22 associated parties with them. An amendment to the Representation of the People Act was drafted to clear Indira Gandhi from the Allahabad high court ruling. At least 50,000 or more people had been jailed in India in first 3 months of Emergency. At last Emergency was withdrawn on March 21^st 1977 after a period of 21 months.

Now what I am thinking is – High corruption, Rising Prices, Black Money, Rupees downslide, Squeezing Economy, government’s dictatorship & wrong policies and the Public Unrest are the terms which are presently clouding India. Same reasons coupled with many wrong decisions by Indira Gandhi led to that phase of emergency in 1975. Presently the only difference is that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is driving India from the back seat instead of Prime Minister's position rest everything is ditto same and I don’t think there is any such gutsy judiciary left in India who can charge the corrupt politicians. So, the mango people are just left to wait and watch, let’s see where it is heading? Moreover, Anna Hazare movement and his arrest, Lathi Charge during Baba Ramdev Protests, other happenings with all the socialists & RTI activists and other public protests…………

Is INDIA heading towards another EMERGENCY ?

I am not sure, but my intuition says – something big is going to happen before 2014 elections….. Keep your fingers crossed