In his path-breaking book, ‘India’s Undeclared Emergency’, Bangalore- based legal luminaire, Arvind Narrain, presents an incisive and accurate analysis of how the Modi- regime has ushered in, through direct and subtle ways, an undeclared emergency! Narrain is clear, through measures which reek of populism, polarisation and post-truth, the Modi-regime is far more dangerous as constitutional propriety, the pro-people policies and the concern for the nation’s future – are blatantly disregarded. It is clearly an authoritarian rule, there are several indicators to evidence it. A short distance from India becoming a totalitarian state. The message is loud and clear: today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

On 4 February 1948, under the stewardship of Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the Indian Government banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by one of them on 30 January. The unequivocal resolution of the Government stated among other things, “undesirable and even dangerous activities have been carried on by members of the Sangh. It has been found that in several parts of the country individual members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have indulged in acts of violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity, and murder and have collected illicit arms and ammunition. They have been found circulating leaflets exhorting people to resort to terrorist methods, to collect firearms, to create disaffection against the government and suborn the police and the military. These activities have been carried on under a cloak of secrecy…. In these circumstances, it is the bounden duty of the government to take effective measures to curb this reappearance of violence in a virulent form and as a first step to this end, they have decided to declare the Sangh as an unlawful association. Government has no doubt that in taking this measure they have the support of all law–abiding citizens, of all those who have the welfare of the country at heart”. So, when a few days ago, the Centre recently lifted a longstanding ban on government employees participating in activities associated with the RSS, they were clearly stating, without qualms of conscience that today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

In a hard-hitting expose ‘Democracy can die in daylight too’ (The Hindu, 13 June 2019), Krishna Prasad a former Editor-in-Chief, Outlook, and former member of the Press Council of India writes, “When the media’s darkest days — the censorship under Indira Gandhi’s 21 months of Emergency — are invoked, L.K. When the media’s darkest days — the censorship under Indira Gandhi’s 21 months of Emergency — are invoked, L.K. Advani’s quote that ‘the press crawled when asked to bend’ is airily recalled. But at least the media of the time was adhering to a formal order which had a start date and an end date. In the 21st century, it didn’t take a presidential order for the ‘feral beasts’ to suspend their instincts, to look the other way, to stoke majoritarian fires, to fearlessly question not the ruling party but the Opposition, and usher in Modi 2.0”. That was said five years ago.  India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index 2024 is a pathetic 159 out of 180 countries.

On 18 July, ‘The Editors Guild of India’ (EGI)wrote a letter to Shri Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in Parliament. The meticulously written letter cites several “concerns about legislative measures taken to control media over the past years”. The EGI urged the opposition to raise questions in Parliament, highlighting the “increasing the increasing threat to fundamental freedom” and mentioned four legislations with their limitations: Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023; Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2023; Press and Registration of Periodicals Act 2023; and amended IT Rules 2021. Freedom of speech and expression is being throttled in India as never before Indeed, today is worse than the ‘emergency!’

In India during the Hindu month of ‘Shravan’, a large number of Hindu devotees travel from various places with ‘kanwars’ (two pitchers tied on either end of a bamboo pole), carrying holy water from the River Ganges to perform ‘jalabhishek’ of Shivlings. Recently, the Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand brought out an extremely pernicious order, demanding that all eateries where the pilgrims would journey to compulsorily display the names of their owners. Such orders are blatantly unconstitutional, reminding one of the discriminatory policies of Hitler’s Nazi regime and the apartheid of South Africa. Thanks to enlightened citizens like Aakar Patel, Apoorvanand Jha and others, these directives were challenged in the Supreme Court. On 22 July, in an interim order, the judges of the Supreme Court prohibited the enforcement of the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand directives stating “until the returnable date, having regard to the above discussion, we deem it appropriate to pass an interim order, prohibiting the enforcement of the above directives.  In other words, the food sellers maybe required to display the kind of food, they are serving to the Kanwariyas, but must not be forced to disclose the names/identities of the owners or the employees. A powerful statement indicating that, today is worse than the ‘emergency!’

On 17 July, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) in a detailed statement (with irrefutable facts and figures) strongly condemned the spree of mob lynchings of minorities across the country, after the declaration of Lok Sabha election results on 4 June. The NAPM demanded a fair investigation, stringent and prompt action against the perpetrators in all these cases, as well as complete support, safety, and compensation to the aggrieved families. They also called for the withdrawal of the FIR filed against UP- based journalists for merely reporting cases of mob lynchings. They added that, while the BJP Government has received a weakened mandate in the elections, the social poison of communal hated continues to remain a major challenge, which the NAPM and many others, are convince needs to be unitedly resisted.  The mob lynchings of minorities only prove that, today is worse than the ‘emergency!’

Ever since the Modi-regime, assumed power in 2014, there has been incessant attacks on the minorities of India particularly on the Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. Those belonging to minority communities are attacked and their institutions destroyed. Hate speeches denigrating and demonising minorities are the rule of the day even during the election campaign speeches of Modi! The anti-conversion laws in several BJP -ruled states are draconian and unconstitutional. Some governments have policies which are blatantly anti- minority. Minorities are also denied employment opportunities in the Government. According to a recent report released by an Advocacy group, there are at least two attacks per day on Christians and their institutions. On 26 June, releasing its annual ‘International Freedom of Religion Report 2023’, in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken stated, “In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities”. All this demonstrates that, today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

For more than a year now, since 3 May 2023, tribals (who are mainly Christian) in the State of Manipur have been at the receiving end of a vicious Government! Even today, more than thirteen months later the violence continues unabated: many are killed and many more are injured; thousands (particularly the Kuki-Zo people) are living as refugees elsewhere. Their houses and places of worship are destroyed. Their land has been taken away from them! That the State and Central Governments are responsible for the ongoing violence in Manipur, leaves no one in doubt. That they have shown not an iota of political will to quell the violence and restore law and order in Manipur is a clear proof that, today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

Whilst India boasts of producing some of the richest persons in the world, the fact is that vast sections of the society still do not have access to roti- kapda- makaan(food-clothing-shelter) and the other basic amenities of life; many still below the poverty line. The gap between the rich and the poor grows wider every day! It is not surprising that in the Global Hunger Index 2023, India was placed at an abysmal 111 out of 125 countries surveyed! The Adivasis/Tribals (indigenous people), who constitute a sizable section of India’s population are denied their jal- jungle- jameen (water-forests-land) and other legitimate rights. Thousands of them are displaced because of mega- projects. Primary education in the remote tribal villages is non – existent and so is medicare for them; a large percentage of tribals have to migrate to urban areas / other States in search of employment. Besides them, most migrant workers, continue to be excluded and exploited! The plight of the Dalits, the OBCs leave much to be desired; untouchability is practiced everywhere; manual scavenging still exists; the reality of the safai kamdars (those who clean the sewage tanks) is pathetic. These and other vulnerable sections of society are testimony to the fact that today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’ 

Just before his arrest on 8 October 2020, in a video-message that went viral, Jesuit Fr. Stan Swamy said, “What is happening to me is not something unique happening to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country. We are all aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers’ writers, poets, activists, students, leaders, they are all put into jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers of India. We are part of the process. In a way I am happy to be part of this process. I am not a silent spectator, but part of the game, and ready to pay the price whatever be it.”  Fr Stan was incarcerated in the Taloja jail. He was accused as being a part of the Bhima- Koregaon conspiracy case with about fifteen others. A charge he vehemently denied and there is enough of evidence today to prove that he is innocent! His death on 5 July 2021, whilst still incarcerated is regarded as ‘institutional murder’! Human rights defenders, journalists, activists, academics, NGOs and others who take a stand for justice and have the courage speak truth to power have had to pay a heavy price. There are many from civil society who have had to face the wrath of a regime which is vicious and vindictive. These include besides those in the Bhima -Koregaon case the likes of Teesta Setalvad, Sanjiv Bhatt, R.B. Sreekumar, G. N. Saibaba, Umar Khalid, Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Sheikh Showkat Hussain and several others. This regime brooks neither dissent nor criticism proving that today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

There are the whole range of anti-people, draconian laws/ policies which have been hurriedly pushed through. These include the new Criminal Laws, the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Education Policy, the anti – conversion laws, the anti-farmer (pro-Corporate) farm laws, the four labour codes, the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, the Uniform Civil Code passed by the State of Uttarakhand, the ‘One Nation, One Election’ report. All these have been designed, in tone and letter to decimate the Constitution; to take away the rights of the people. There is no doubt about that today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

The Environment is in a shambles! In the 2024 Environmental Performance Index, India was ranked last 176 out of 180 countries! The destruction of precious forest lands and bio-diversity, to cater to so-called ‘development’ projects contribute immensely to the climatic changes one experiences today. The 2023 Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act provides that the de-reservation of reserved forests, use of forest land for non-forest purpose, assigning forest land by way of lease or otherwise to private entity, precious water bodies in the urban areas are land-filled, causing floods. Most major rivers in the country are polluted; there is over-dependence on fossil fuel. Even today coal blocks are auctioned to crony capitalist friends of the Government. Sections of the corporate sector and particularly the mining mafia–have no qualms of conscience, in depleting precious natural resources, with the sole desire of profiteering. Today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

Corruption is mainstreamed in the country; practically nothing can be done without greasing the palms of those at the control wheels. Politicians from opposition parties are easily bought up. The ruling regime has made mindboggling amounts of money through demonetisation and the sale of electoral bonds (EB). Corruption has become new normal in India. The massive and unprecedented scam of the Electoral Bonds) rocked the nation a short while ago! Fortunately, the pathbreaking judgement on the EB by the Supreme Court on 15 February, has exposed the corruption, the lack of transparency and accountability of the current regime.  Through the EB they have amassed huge amounts of money. The State Bank of India (SBI) had to furnish the complete details to the Apex Court by 6 March. In a blatantly corrupt manner, on 4 March, the SBI petitioned the SC, for an extension of time till 30 June to provide these details! In accordance with law, the Apex Court dismissed the petition and the SBI had to comply with the order or face charges of contempt of court. They finally provided the data on 12 March. On 14 March, the Election Commission uploaded some of the details on their website. The SC once again came heavily down on the SBI on 15 March, for not revealing complete details of these bonds. Transparency International ranked India 93 out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). The BJP regime under Modi must be the most corrupt amongst the world democracies reiterating the fact that today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’ 

This regime has compromised and corrupted constitutional and independent authorities like the Election Commission (ECI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the National Human Rights Commission, the police and even sections of the judiciary. A new incisive report just released by #votefordemocracy (VFD) analyses the vote manipulation and the misconduct during voting and counting in the recently concluded General Elections 2024.  With evidence, the Report shows that the ECI was in the pocket of the BJP. The elections were clearly stolen from the people of India in at least 75 seats, reaffirming that, today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

In Parliament, the opposition is not allowed to speak freely: they are shouted down or the mike is muted. The body language of particularly the Speaker of the Lok Sabha towards the opposition is one of hostility, important remarks are expunged whereas the treasury benches are allowed to get away with lies, half-truths and venom! Important and critical debates on pressing issues which impact the people of India are not allowed! If elected representatives of the people are not allowed to make the peoples voices heard in Parliament means that today, is worse than the ‘emergency!’

The joke is that, a few days ago the Home Minister speaking on behalf of the Government, declared June 25 will be observed every year as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’, which loosely translates to ‘the day the Constitution was killed’.  Pathetic indeed! If the Constitution was ‘killed’ almost fifty years ago what was the BJP doing all these years, in their first term in power and since 2014, when the Modi took charge?  That means they were running the country without a constitution? They have indeed reached such a low level of fascism that they are unable even to think rationally and objectively! Instead, they need to realise that today, is worse than the ‘emergency’ and it will continue to be so, till the day they and their ilk, like the evil Holika, are consigned to oblivion!

(Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist /writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com)

The post TODAY, is WORSE than the ‘EMERGENCY!’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On the 48^th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi [June 25, 1975-March 21, 1977] we are witnessing once again the farce of RSS (Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh) claiming that the organisation opposed the Emergency vociferously.

PM Modi described it as the “darkest period” in Indian history in his weekly radio talk, ‘Mann ki Baat’ on June 18, 2023.

A senior RSS functionary who also happened to be a former Vice-President of India claimed in a special article on June 24, “The RSS played an important role in organising protests against the Emergency. These developments highlight the importance of active citizenship and grassroots movements in safeguarding democracy and advocating for the rights and freedoms of all citizens.”

Present day RSS-BJP rulers brag about how the ‘RSS fought against the Emergency’ not due to any (political) compulsions but as article of faith in democracy. Whether in fact, RSS cadres whose party is presently ruling India today “love democracy” needs to be seen, assessed and then given credence to. Indian jails meant to incarcerate anti-social elements are packed with young activists ranging from brilliant school/university students (large number of them being women) to leading intellectuals and senior citizens in their 70s and 80s, suffering serious ailments.

According to a reputed world study, the Index of Democracy Report, 2023, on the status of global democracy, “India ranks 108th in the Electoral Democracy Index”. This study was released by the V–Dem Institute. The country ranks way below countries such as Tanzania, Bolivia, Mexico, Singapore and Nigeria. India has also been named in the top 10 autocratising countries in the last 10 years in the report. India’s ranking dipped from the 100th position in 2022 to 108th this year in the report’s Electoral Democracy Index (EDI).”

On May 3, World Press Freedom Day (WPFD), the World Press Freedom Index 2023 was published by Reporters without Borders (RSF). India ranked 161^st among the 180 countries with a score of 36.62. In 2022, India’s rank was 150.

In fact, totalitarianism runs through the veins of RSS cadres who are fond of rule by iron men. Democracy and RSS are antithetical. This is not just what critics of Hindutva politics articulate but is what the most prominent ideologue of the RSS, MS Golwalkar, also known as ‘Guru of Hate’ [whom PM Modi credits for grooming him into a political leader] decreed while addressing the 1350 top level cadres of the RSS in 1940,

“RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”

[Golwalkar, MS, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd., vol. I, p. 11.]

We need therefore to evaluate the current RSS’ claim of fighting the Emergency with contemporary RSS documents. The 3rd Supremo of the RSS, Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras wrote the first letter of praise to Indira Gandhi within two months of the imposition of Emergency. It was the time when state terror was running amok across India.

In letter dated, August 22, 1975 he began with the following praise of Indira:

“I heard your address to the nation which you delivered on August 15, 1975 from Red Fort on radio in jail [Yervada jail] with attention. Your address was timely and balanced so I decided to write to you”.

[Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, Hindu Sangathan aur Sattavaadi Rajneeti, Jagriti Prkashan, Noida, 1997, 270.]

Indira Gandhi did not respond to it. So Deoras wrote another letter to Indira on November 10, 1975. He began his letter with congratulating her on being cleared by the Supreme Court of disqualification which was ordered by the Allahabad High Court,

“All the five Justices of the Supreme Court have declared your election constitutional, heartiest greetings for it.”

It is to be noted that opposition was firmly of the opinion that this judgment had been influenced by the power of the Executive, then ruled by the Congress.

In the course of the same letter he declared that

“RSS has been named in context of Jaiprakash Narayan’s movement. The government has also connected RSS with Gujarat movement and Bihar movement without any reason…Sangh has no relation with these movements…” [Ibid, pp-272-73]

Since Indira Gandhi did not respond to this letter too, RSS chief got hold of Vinoba Bhave who supported the Emergency religiously and was a favourite of Indira Gandhi.

In a letter dated January 12, 1976, Deoras begged that Acharya should suggest the way that ban on RSS was removed. [Ibid, pp-275-77] Since Acharya too did not respond to Deoras letter, the latter in another communication without date desperately wrote:

“According to press reports respected PM [Indira Gandhi] is going to meet you at Pavnar Ashram on January 24. At that time there will be discussion about the present condition of the country. I beg you to try to remove the wrong assumptions of PM about RSS so that ban on RSS is lifted and RSS members are released from jails. We are looking forward for the times when RSS and its members are able to contribute to the plans of progress which are being run in all the fields under the leadership of PM.” [Ibid, p. 278]

[All these letters written in Hindi are reproduced from a publication of the RSS at the end of this article.]

Balraj Madhok, a senior ideologue of the RSS who died as pracharak [whole-timer] of RSS in 2016 in his autobiography without mincing words wrote that Sarsanghchalak Deoras was fond of good living and when was held under MISA, “wrote two letters on August 22, 1975 and November 10, 1975 to Indira Gandhi for reconsidering her attitude towards the Sangh and lifting the ban from it.

He also wrote a letter to Shri Vinoba Bhave requesting him to try to remove from Indira Gandhi’s heart anti [Sangh] feelings.” [Zindagi Ka Safar –3: Deendayal Upadhyay Ki Hatya Se Indira Gandhi Ki Hatya Tak (Journey of Life-3: From the Murder of Deendayal Upadhyay to the Murder of Indira Gandhi), Dinman, Delhi, 2003, p. 188-189.]

Recall that former President of the Indian Republic, Pranab Mukherjee was invited by the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat as the chief guest of the graduation ceremony of its new recruits in 2018. It would be naïve to believe that Bhagwat did not know that Pranab Mukherjee was indicted as one of the top leaders of Congress following Emergency excesses.

It is shameful that despite these facts thousands of RSS cadres continue to get monthly family pension for “persecution” during Emergency. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra decided to award a monthly pension of Rs 20,000 to those who were jailed during the Emergency period for less than 2 month and Rs 10000 to those who were jailed for less than a month.

This decision has taken case of the financial interest of those RSS cadres who submitted mercy letters completing only one or two months’ jail term! For securing such a significant monthly pension there is no specific condition (requirement) that the beneficiary –from tax payers’ money–should have been in jail for the whole period of the Emergency.

The Nation needs to remember that the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi was withdrawn by her on March 21, 1977 and her party lost next general elections. However, RSS-BJP oligarchy continues to rule with an iron fist and relying on anti-terror laws without imposing an Emergency; it is the new normal under Modi as Prime Minister.

(The author is a former professor of Hindi, Delhi University and a scholar on recent Indian modern history)

Related:

RSS had no role in the freedom struggle

We or Our Nationhood Defined – 1947 Edition

The Ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is both Hate-Ridden and Supremacist – Part 1

‘Old Wine in New bottle’: Bhagwat on Caste

The Sangh’s Hypocrisy on Dalits, It’s Time to Read ‘Bunch of Thoughts’, Again!

The post How RSS betrayed the struggle against the Emergency, from its archives appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Recent IT raids of Dainik Bhaskar and Bharat Samachar offices and revelations regarding spyware Pegasus yet again confirm the Narendra Modi government’s extreme allergy to any criticism, said the Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists (BUJ) on July 24, 2021.

On Saturday, it voiced concern about the raids on 32 offices of the newspaper and the Uttar Pradesh TV channel, both of which put up critical reports about the Indian government’s handling of the second wave of Covid-19.

Information regarding the surveillance of around 40 Indian journalists using Pegasus is also another example of a series of similar incidents in the past such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids of the Newsclick office and cases lodged against Newslaundry and The Wire reporters last month.

“Let us harbour no illusions: this is an undeclared emergency. The BUJ condemns the Modi government’s efforts to intimidate and suppress critical journalism. We uphold the democratic right of the media to access and disseminate information, without fear or favour,” said BUJ Secretary I. K. Jain in a press release.

He called upon all journalists to unite and strengthen the struggle to protect constitutional rights. Further, Jain appealed that media organisations refrain from violating labour laws and sacrificing journalistic principles for the benefit of narrow partisan agendas and the market.

The BUJ criticised the government for silencing journalists’ voices even when the criticism was based on irrefutable facts. Voicing this as an attack on the freedom of speech and expression, it said, “Disconcertingly, these disquieting developments are unfolding even while the Ruling Party at the Centre enjoys a formidable majority in Parliament. The situation is clearly dire: the deep state in India will not tolerate dissent and democracy in its obsequious obeisance to international finance and its minions.”

Moreover, the organisation condemned the corporate media for its selective lip-service to freedom of expression and citizens’ right to be informed and to dissent. It called upon all media houses to observe its obligation to investigate and disseminate information in public interest.

“This conjunctural window of liberty is now zealously being slammed shut to the applause of a blinded claque, indifferent to the democratic well-being of both citizens and the nation,” said the BUJ.

Related:

Tax raids unleashed on Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar media groups
Pegasus spyware trotting into ministers’ phones, who is next?
ED Raids & NewsClick: Weaponising law by Criminalising Free Speech

The post Harbour no illusions: This is an undeclared emergency!: BUJ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

First Published on 25 Jun 2020

On June 25, 1975, we woke up without electricity. Sanjay Gandhi had switched on the Emergency. My firstborn child was three months old, and I was a young newspaper reporter.

By the time we reached our office, the sun was high, the hush was loud. Blissfully, the ignorance of what lay ahead was total, from Editor in Chief down to the youngest on the Crime Beat.

 Our offices were on what we grandiosely called Fleet Street, which was not a very wide road, just a kilometre-long link connecting the Walled City and New Delhi, via a large Muslim graveyard, a former jail with a hangman’s noose, and a ruin where the British had shot dead the sons of the last Emperor of North India. Ominous, but in later months, a sort of a regular “beat”, for correspondents. It was the bodies that were brought in which told us of what had happened somewhere, in town. Much as now.

 Every graveyard, or cremation ground, has a “normal” day’s business, changing perhaps with season. An influx speaks of disaster, violence, police firing perhaps, or, as now, Covid’s strike. That is how reporters such as Jawaid Laiq, Ajoy Bose and some other colleagues, broke stories of Turkman Gate, for instance, iconic and historic memories of the State of Internal Emergency Indira Gandhi imposed when her membership of the Lok Sabha, and therefore her premiership, was struck down by a high court judge in Allahabad.

So what’s common across the chasm of 45 years to me as a reporter?

 Prime ministers are dictatorial. The post gives huge powers. Even the urine-drinking, his own, not a cow’s I may add, Morarji Desai, who came after the Emergency had been lifted in just under two years, was imperious. As was his successor Charan Singh. But Indira was an empress, no doubt about it. In those days without security concerns, young reporters could stand within inches of her, taking notes of what she told hired and I suppose a little frightened crowd brought to her house by her chamchas or by tycoons seeking favours. She could smile. But we took no selfies. 

This is not about what led to the Emergency, and made Indira so afraid of her own shadow. Even now, the final word is yet to be written. People who were involved have not written the honest biographies they should. The Left has been left with much guilt that it helped legitimise the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The scraps have come from people who also wrote notes of apology. The senior editors became complicit in the shenanigans of the rapid succession of prime ministers and short-lived governments. The good ones passed away.

The process is now complete. The media is owned by corporations, which have grown on government favours. The journalists are contractual labour, whipped into a screaming frenzy both by job insecurity and transmitted orders. But satellite television, 4-G Internet and Apps, which can be read even by the unlettered, have enormously multiplied their power, specially their power for evil.

In retrospect, two things emerge out of the emergence.

The first is the Concentration of Power, and with it, its accompaniments of one or two Extra-constitutional Centres of Authority and their sub-agendas. The suspension of human rights, constitutional rights and civil liberties becomes a mere mechanism or instrument, just as the intuitive subservience of Constitutional offices, police and the justice system.

The second is the salesmanship, the selling of the Grand Lie that the State of Emergency is Good for You, good for the nation, good for the future generations, good for the majority religion, and good for the minorities. The bitter pill to ward off illness, the Chloroquine of governance, so to say.

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi is not a match on Narendrabhai Damordardas Modi. She had just one centre of extra-constitutional authority, her son Sanjay. Sanjay’s wife and son are now with Modi. As are many former Congressmen and all the corporate giants that she helped birth and grow. Mr. Modi has the entire RSS with him, which Indira helped sanitise from its earlier state of total exclusion. Its current commander, Mohan Bhagwat, can dare say he is capable of raising an army to defend India in three days. A time frame borrowed, alas, from a man of the Abrahamic religions he so despises.

Modi’s trains, instead of running on time, may get lost and wander through the countryside with hungry migrant passengers on board, but he is he world master in selling the Grand Lie, the Fake News.

Easy, actually, when you have call centers with thousands of hands, writing programmes, evolving algorithms, morphing and photo shopping photographs, to multiply and transmit the hate slogans and mimes the core teams in Nagpur and New Delhi have created. Black, then, is white. Islamophobia is nationalism.

 Above all, Modi has Amit Shah.

Indira, and the Emergency, had nothing comparable.

(The author is one of India’s foremost voices on human rights, civil liberties and religious freedom. A researcher, and writer, he has a long record of investigating and producing substantive and influential documentation on targeted violence against religious minorities, Dalits and Tribals. His work has been published in magazines and newspapers  in India, Asia and Europe. His books include For Reasons of State – Delhi under the Emergency [Penguin] [published 1977, republished 2018 with Ajoy Bose], Gujarat 2002 – Untold and Retold Stories, A Matter of Equity – Interrogating Secularism in India.  With activists Harsh Mander and Natasha Badhwar, he co-edited Reflections: Karwan-e Mohabbat’s Journey of Solidarity Through a Wounded India. He is a frequent commentator on human rights issues, politics and strategic affairs.)

“In 1977, two reporters, both in their 20s, occupied highly advantageous positions during the 19 months of the Emergency to observe the turmoil wrought in  Delhi. The nation found itself in a whirlwind of fear, confusion, violence and destabilization, stemming from forced sterilizations, heartless evictions in the thousands, and the cruel imprisonment of many. Part reportage and part human stories, this definitive volume evokes the life and times of the Emergency and how it unfolded, and remains perennially relevant.”

Related:

How the RSS leadership bowed to Indira Gandhi: 45th anniv of the Emergency

The New ‘Emergency’!

When the Government tried to browbeat the Judiciary The NJAC Controversy

This government has all but actually declared a war on its own people: Teesta Setalvad

The post Time flies, memories fade, nightmares become real appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On the 46th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi [June 25, 1975] we are witnessing once again the farce of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) claiming that it opposed it with full might. It is laughable to find it boasting that RSS fought against the Emergency not due to any compulsion but as article of faith in democracy. How RSS cadres ruling India today love democracy is to be seen and believed. The Indian jails which were supposed to incarcerate anti-social elements are packed with young activists ranging from brilliant school/university students (large number of them being girls) to senior citizens in 70s and 80s with serious ailments. According to a reputed world study “India’s score fell from a peak of 7.92 in 2014 to 6.61 in 2020 and its global ranking slipped from 27th (in 2014) to 53rd as a result of democratic backsliding” under the current RSS-BJP regime.[i]

In fact, totalitarianism is in the veins of RSS cadres who are fond of IRON MEN. That, democracy and RSS are antithetical, is not what critics of the Hindutva politics highlight but is what the most prominent ideologue of the RSS, MS Golwalkar, also known as ‘Guru of Hate’ [whom PM Modi credits for grooming him into a political leader] decreed while addressing the 1350 top level cadres of the RSS in 1940 declared,

“RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”[ii]

We must evaluate the RSS claim of fighting the Emergency with the contemporary RSS documents. The 3rd Supremo of RSS, Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras wrote the first letter of praise to Indira Gandhi within two months of the imposition of Emergency. It was the time when state terror was running amok. In letter dated, August 22, 1975 he began with the following praise of Indira:

“I heard your address to the nation which you delivered on August 15, 1975 from Red Fort on radio in jail [Yervada jail] with attention. Your address was timely and balanced so I decided to write to you”.[iii]

Indira Gandhi did not respond to it. So, Deoras wrote another letter to Indira on November 10, 1975. He began his letter with congratulating her on being cleared by the Supreme Court of disqualification which was ordered by the Allahabad High Court,

“All the five Justices of the Supreme Court have declared your election constitutional, heartiest greetings for it.”

It is to be noted that opposition was firmly of the opinion that this judgment was ‘managed’ by the Congress. In the course of the letter, he declared that

“RSS has been named in context of Jaiprakash Narayan’s movement. The government has also connected RSS with Gujarat movement and Bihar movement without any reason…Sangh has no relation with these movements…”[iv]

Since Indira Gandhi did not respond to this letter too, RSS chief got hold of Vinoba Bhave who supported the Emergency religiously, and was a favourite of Indira Gandhi. In a letter dated January 12, 1976, Deoras begged that Acharya should suggest the way that ban on RSS was removed.[v]  Since Acharya too did not respond to Deoras letter, the latter in another communication without date desperately wrote:  

“According to press reports respected PM [Indira Gandhi] is going to meet you at Pavnar Ashram on January 24. At that time there will be discussion about the present condition of the country. I beg you to try to remove the wrong assumptions of PM about RSS so that ban on RSS is lifted and RSS members are released from jails. We are looking forward for the times when RSS and its members are able to contribute to the plans of progress which are being run in all the fields under the leadership of PM.”[vi]

[All these letters in Hindi are reproduced from a publication of the RSS at the end of this article.]

Balraj Madhok, a senior ideologue of the RSS who died as pracharak [whole-timer] of RSS in 2016 in his autobiography without mincing words wrote that Sarsanghchalak Deoras was fond of good living and when was held under MISA, “wrote two letters on August 22, 1975 and November 10, 1975 to Indira Gandhi for reconsidering her attitude towards the Sangh and lifting the ban from it. He also wrote a letter to Shri Vinoba Bhave requesting him to try to remove from Indira Gandhi’s heart anti [Sangh] feelings.” [Zindagi Ka Safar –3: Deendayal Upadhyay Ki Hatya Se Indira Gandhi Ki Hatya Tak (Journey of Life-3: From the Murder of Deendayal Upadhyay to the Murder of Indira Gandhi), Dinman, Delhi, 2003, p. 188-189.]

It is to be noted that former President of the Indian Republic, Pranab Mukherjee was invited by the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat as the chief guest at the graduation ceremony of its new recruits in 2018. It would be naïve to believe that Bhagwat did not know that Pranab Mukherjee was indicted as one of the top leaders of Congress for Emergency excesses.

It is shameful that despite these facts thousands of RSS cadres continue to get monthly family pension for the persecution during Emergency. The BJP ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra decided to award a monthly pension of Rs 20,000 to those who were jailed during the Emergency period for less than 2 month and Rs 10000 to those who were jailed for less than a month. This rule took care of the financial interest of those RSS cadres who submitted mercy letters completing only one or two months’ jail term. For securing such a fat pension there was no such condition that the beneficiary should have been in jail for the whole period of the Emergency.

Interestingly, in the case of anti-British freedom struggle there has not been even a single RSS cadre to claim the freedom fighter pension. It is sad that nobody remembers hundreds of Communist youth who branded as Naxals and killed in fake encounters during the Emergency.

The post RSS as worshippers of brute power did not oppose 1975 Emergency appeared first on SabrangIndia.

RSS is the Hindutva gurukul, (university) which specialises in training it’s cadres in the internalising of half-truths and lies, based on the manufacturing of history. A recent proof of this is evidenced in Ram Madhav’s claim that, Indian democracy survives due to “leaders in the government who fought for that very freedom and are committed to liberal democratic values, not just as a matter of compulsion but as an article of faith.”[i] Described as an ‘RSS ideologue by commercial television channels, Madhav was speaking on the 45^th anniversary of the Emergency. His falsified claim is that RSS-BJP leaders fought against the Emergency, not out of compulsion but as an article of faith in democracy. Both claims are while lies. This can be seen not just from the claims of critics of the RSS, but from all contemporary RSS documents available.

Let us take first, address the claim that the RSS-BJP rulers are/have been committed to the liberal democratic values, as an article of faith. The most prominent ideologue of the RSS, MS Golwalkar, also known as the ‘Guru of Hate’ [whom PM Modi credits for grooming him into a political leader] while addressing as many as 1350 top level cadres of the RSS, in 1940, declared, “RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”[ii]

With such a philosophical liking for totalitarianism the RSS has hated the sharing of power. This can be seen from the outfit’s strong opposition to the federal structure of the constitution, a ‘Basic’ feature of the Indian republic. Golwalkar, declared in 1961, “Today’s federal form of government not only gives birth but also nourishes the feelings of separatism, in a way refuses to recognise the fact of one nation, and destroys it. It must be completely uprooted, the constitution purified and (a) unitary form of government be established.”[iii]

As far as the Emergency is concerned, the RSS claim of fighting against it, needs also to be evaluated in the light of contemporary narratives as also from RSS’ own documents. In this connection two narratives, one by a veteran thinker and journalist of India, Prabhash Joshi and the other, by TV Rajeswar, former Intelligence Bureau [IB] chief, who was the deputy chief of IB during the Emergency, are of immense importance. They recounted the days of Emergency (or state authoritarianism) when the RSS surrendered to the repressive regime of Indira Gandhi, assured both her and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, of their cooperation to enforce faithfully the draconian 20-point programme, announced by the Emergency regime. Large number of RSS cadres came out of jails by submitting maafinaamas (mercy petitions).
This contemporary, historical narrative by Prabhash Joshi, appeared in the English weekly, Tehelka on the 25th anniversary of the Emergency.[iv] According to Joshi, even during the Emergency “there was always a lurking sense of suspicion, a distance, a discreet lack of trust” about the RSS’ joining the anti-Emergency struggle. He went on to write, that

“Balasaheb Deoras, the then RSS chief, wrote a letter to Indira Gandhi pledging to help implement the notorious 20-point programme of Sanjay Gandhi. This is the real character of the RSS…You can decipher a line of action, a pattern. Even during the Emergency, many among the RSS and Jana Sangh who came out of the jails, gave maafinamas. They were the first to apologise. Only their leaders remained in jail: Atal Behari Vajpayee [most of the time, in hospital], LK Advani, even Arun Jaitley. But the RSS did not fight the Emergency. So why is the BJP trying to appropriate that memory?”

Prabhash Joshi’s conclusion was that “they are not a fighting force and they are never keen to fight. They are basically a compromising lot. They are never genuinely against the government”.

TV Rajeswar, who served as Governor of Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim penned a book, ‘India: The Crucial Years” [Harper Collins], in which, he corroborated the fact, that, “Not only they (RSS) were supportive of this [Emergency], they wanted to establish contact apart from Mrs Gandhi, with Sanjay Gandhi also”.[v] Rajeswar in an interview with Karan Thapar disclosed that, Deoras,

“quietly established a link with the PM’s house and expressed strong support for several steps taken to enforce order and discipline in the country. Deoras was keen to meet Mrs. Gandhi and Sanjay. But Mrs. Gandhi refused.”[vi]

According to Rajeswar’s book,

“RSS, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation, was banned in the wake of the Emergency. But its chief, Balasaheb Deoras, quietly established a link with the PM’s house and expressed strong support to several steps taken to enforce order and discipline in the country. Sanjay Gandhi’s concerted drive to enforce family planning, particularly among Muslims, had earned Deoras’s approbation.”[vii]

Rajeswar also shared the fact, that, even after Emergency, the “organisation, (RSS) had specifically conveyed its support to the Congress in the post-emergency elections.”[viii] It will be interesting to note that even according to Subramanian Swamy during the Emergency period, most of the senior leaders of RSS had betrayed the struggle against the Emergency.[ix]

Contemporary documents in the RSS archives corroborate the narratives proffered by Prabhash Joshi and Rajeswar. The 3rd Supremo of RSS, Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras wrote the first letter to Indira Gandhi within two months of the imposition of Emergency. It was the time when state terror was running amok. In a letter dated, August 22, 1975 he began with the following praise of Indira:

“I heard your address to the nation which you delivered on August 15, 1975 from Red Fort on radio in jail [Yervada jail] with attention. Your address was timely and balanced so I decided to write to you”.[x]

Indira Gandhi did not respond to it. So Deoras wrote another letter to Indira on November 10, 1975. He began his letter with congratulating her on being cleared by the Supreme Court of disqualification (in the elections) which was ordered by the Allahabad High Court, “All the five Justices of the Supreme Court have declared your election constitutional, heartiest greetings for it.” It is to be noted that opposition was firmly of the opinion that this judgment was ‘influenced’ by the Congress. In the course of the letter, he declared that “RSS has been named in the context of Jaiprakash Narayan’s movement. The government has also connected RSS with the Gujarat movement and the Bihar movement without any reason…Sangh has no relation with these movements…”[xi]

Since Indira Gandhi did not respond to this letter also, RSS chief got hold of Vinoba Bhave who supported the Emergency religiously and was a favourite of Indira Gandhi. In a letter dated January 12, 1976, he begged that the Acharya should suggest a way to ensure that the ban on the RSS was removed.[xii]  Since the Acharya, too, did not respond to Deoras letter, the latter in another letter without date wrote in desperation,

“According to press reports, respected PM [Indira Gandhi] is going to meet you at Pavnar Ashram on January 24. At that time there will be discussion about the present condition of the country. I beg you to try to remove the wrong assumptions of PM about RSS so that ban on RSS is lifted and RSS members are released from jails. We are looking forward to the time when RSS and its members are able to contribute to the plans of progress which are being run in all the fields under the leadership of PM.”[xiii]

All these letters in Hindi are being reproduced from a publication of the RSS at the end of this article.

Significantly, former President of the Indian Republic, Pranab Mukherjee was invited by the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat as the chief guest at the graduation ceremony of its new recruits. These recruits are trained to work over-time (on social and political steps) to convert India into a theocratic (Hindu) state. Pranab Mukherjee has been known, and held responsible too, as one of the top leaders of Congress, responsible, for Emergency excesses. The tragedy of the RSS in power at the Centre is that India, while a constitutional democracy, is governed by a love of power, which compels its spokespersons to indulge in doublespeak.

Despite these facts, it is shameful, that thousands of RSS cadres continue to get monthly pension for ‘persecution’ during Emergency. BJP ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have decided to award a monthly pension of Rs 20,000 to those who were jailed during the Emergency period for less than 2 months and Rs 10,000 to those who were jailed for less than a month. This rule took care of the financial interest of those RSS cadres who submitted mercy letters completing only one or two months’ jail term. For securing such a significant pension, there is no condition that the beneficiary should have been in jail for the whole period of the Emergency.

Interestingly, in the case of anti-British freedom struggle, not a single person from RSS cadres is fit to claim a freedom fighters pension. Neither does India remember hundreds of Communist youth, branded as Naxals, who were killed in brute extra-judicial killings (“fake encounters”) during the Emergency. Interestingly, the Shiv Sena too, a former Hindutva co-traveler of the RSS openly supported the Emergency.

The author can be reached at  notoinjustice@gmail.com

The post How the RSS leadership bowed to Indira Gandhi: 45th anniv of the Emergency appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The country will never forget that infamous night of June 25/26, 1975, when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared all over the country. During that dark chapter of the country’s history which lasted for a twenty-one-month period till March 21, 1977, civil liberties were suspended, freedom of speech and expression was totally muzzled, political opponents of the Government and those who protested the emergency were imprisoned and human rights violations by those in power were the order of the day! The most obvious response for the people of India was to say “never again!” and to ensure that those dark days would never visit the country again!

 
Sadly, that is not the case today! Forty-plus years later we live in a new ‘emergency’ in India! In a brilliant and hard-hitting expose ‘Democracy can die in daylight too’ (The Hindu, June 13, 2019)on the role of the media in the recently concluded general elections, Krishna Prasad a former Editor-in-Chief, Outlook, and former member of the Press Council of India writes, “When the media’s darkest days — the censorship under Indira Gandhi’s 21 months of Emergency — are invoked, L.K. Advani’s quote that the press crawled when asked to bend is airily recalled. But at least the media of the time was adhering to a formal order which had a start date and an end date. In the 21st century, it didn’t take a presidential order for the ‘feral beasts’ to suspend their instincts, to look the other way, to stoke majoritarian fires, to fearlessly question not the ruling party but the Opposition, and usher in Modi 2.0”. The hard fact is that freedom of speech and expression is throttled as never before. One only has to switch on some of the so-called ‘mainstream’ channels or glance at the headlines of some dailies, to realise how biased they are and how afraid they are to focus on news which are truthful and objective.
 
Prasad blatantly  states how media has abdicated their core responsibilities, “notwithstanding Mr. Modi’s advertised disdain for journalists, making the media forget their core tasks — to witness, to verify, to investigate, and to make sense, in the words of the British media scholar George Brock — was always a vital weapon in the manufacture of consent for the ‘Gujarat Model’. Despite early failures as Chief Minister, Mr. Modi deftly achieved this goal. Established media houses were tamed by patronising their competitors. Some pesky editors were reined in or eased out by intimidating owners. Advertisements were turned off and on to let the bottom line send signals to managers”. So today if some media personnel have the audacity to witness, to verify, to investigate, and to make sense – the writing on the wall is clear! The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently ( June 15) barred NDTV Ltd.’s three key promoters -Prannoy Roy, Radhika Roy and their holding firm-from the capital market for two years! No guessing why!
 
On June 8, Prashant Kanojia, a freelance journalist, was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police in Delhi for a tweet that had “objectionable comments” on Yogi Adityanath, the Chief  Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Kanojia, was picked up from his home in Delhi after a complaint by a police officer in Lucknow, alleging he tried to “malign” Adityanath’s. Kanojia’s wife Jagisha Arora challenged his arrest in a petition to the Supreme Court. Ordering his immediate release on bail the Supreme court bench said that it disapproves the deprivation of right to liberty by the state “A citizen’s right to liberty is sacrosanct and non-negotiable. It is a fundamental right granted under the Constitution and can’t be infringed upon by the state” Whilst the prompt intervention and decision by the Supreme Court needs to be applauded, there has been a wave of protests on social media on the way freedom of speech and expression are being throttled in the country. ‘The Editors Guild of India’ condemned the arrest of Kanojia and the editor and head of a NOIDA-based television channel, Nation Live, Ishita Singh and Anuj Shukla, saying, “The police action is high-handed, arbitrary and amounts to an authoritarian misuse of laws. The Guild sees it as an effort to intimidate the press, and stifle freedom of expression…. a brazen misuse of law….” On June 11, a journalist, who was covering a train derailment, in western Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli was beaten up on camera by a group of GRP personnel. The group was seen repeatedly slapping and thrashing the journalist while he tries to reason with them (the video has gone viral). According to ANI, the journalist associated with a news channel, said, “They were in plain clothes. One hit my camera and it fell down. When I picked it up, they hit and abused me. I was locked up, stripped and they urinated in my mouth.”
 
On June 12, an eight-member team of the Pune police raided the Ranchi residence of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy. It was the second such raid on the 83-year-old’s house since August 2018. Fr. Swamy, a great upholder of the rights of Adivasis, is an ‘accused’ in the Bhima Koregaon/Elgaar Parishad case in which police have so far booked 23 people, including prominent rights activists and intellectuals. The ‘Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha’ condemned the raids on Stan Swamy and arrests of other human rights activists saying, “the central government and media houses close to the BJP claim that the human rights activists were part of a Maoist conspiracy related to the Bhima-Koregaon incident. This concocted story seems to be part of a larger propaganda, based on terms like “urban Naxals”, aimed at stifling any criticism of the government. The raids and arrests are part of the government’s growing attempts to stifle dissent and intimidate those who are fighting for justice. Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha demands an immediate end to the raids, dropping of all false charges against human rights activists across the country and release of those who are arrested. These harassments are politically motivated and wholly unjustified”.
 
The throttling of ‘freedom of speech and expression’ has been happening with frightening regularity in India-particularly in the last five years! Media personnel, academics, intellectuals and others who stand up for justice, transparency and truth and have had the courage to voice these non-negotiables, have had to pay a heavy price; they have been hounded and harassed, arrested and tortured and some even killed! A few months ago, when ‘Reporters Without Borders’ released its annual global press freedom index, India was ranked a measly 140 out of 180 countries. A pathetic performance from the world’s largest democracy!
 
The grip that throttles the essence of Indian democracy, must be released. Bertolt Brecht, the German poet and fierce critic of the Nazi regime, provides a cue

In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing
About the dark times.

It is time now for those who cherish the freedom of speech and expression, to wake from their slumber and their inability or fear to act! But do we have the courage to halt the new ‘emergency’ being foisted on the nation?
 

The post The New ‘Emergency’! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Interview with Prabir Purkayastha
Interviewed by Urmilesh Produced by Newsclick Production,

In the context of emergency, the discussion is directed toward Congress, but it is also important to look into the character of RSS in the period. In this episode of ‘Hafte ki Baat, Urmilesh ke Saath’ watch an interesting conversation between Urmilesh and NewsClick’s editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha about the emergency time.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

The post Emergency Period: RSS Chose Compliance Over Resistance appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: AP

An internal Emergency was imposed on the country by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25-26, 1975, and it lasted for 19 months. This period is considered as ”dark times’ for Indian democratic polity. Indira Gandhi claimed that due to Jaiprakash Narayan’s call to the armed forces to disobey the ‘illegal’ orders of Congress rulers, it had created a situation of anarchy and there was a danger to the existence of Indian Republic, so there was no alternative but to impose Emergency under article 352 of the Constitution.

RSS claims that it opposed Emergency promulgated by Indira Gandhi heroically and suffered immensely for resisting Emergency 43 years ago. But there are dozens of contemporary narratives which decry this claim. We will be referring here to such two narratives by a veteran thinker and journalist of India, Prabhash Joshi and TV Rajeswar, former Intelligence Bureau [IB] chief who was the deputy chief of IB when Emergency was imposed. They recounted the days of Emergency (or state terrorism) when RSS surrendered to the repressive regime of Indira Gandhi, assured her and her son, Sanjay Gandhi, to enforce faithfully, the draconian 20-point programme announced by the Emergency regime. A large number of RSS cadres came out of jails by submitting Maafinamas (mercy petitions.)

Despite this betrayal, thousands of RSS cadres continue to get a monthly pension for persecution during Emergency. The BJP ruled states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra decided to award a monthly pension of Rs. 10,000 to those who were jailed during the Emergency period for more than a month and Rs. 5000 to those who were jailed for less than a month. This rule took care of the financial interest of those RSS cadres who might have submitted mercy letters completing only one or two months’ jail term. For securing such a fat pension there was no such condition that the beneficiary should have been in jail for the whole period of the Emergency.

Interestingly, in the case of anti-British freedom struggle, there has not been even a single RSS cadre to claim the freedom fighter pension. It may be noted that nobody remembers hundreds of Communist youth, branded as Naxals, who were killed in fake encounters during the Emergency. Interestingly, Shiv Sena, the Hindutva co-traveller of the RSS openly supported the Emergency.
The narrative by Prabhash Joshi appeared in the English weekly Tehelka on the 25th anniversary of the Emergency. According to him, even during the Emergency, “there was always a lurking sense of suspicion, a distance, a discreet lack of trust” about RSS joining the anti-Emergency struggle. He went on to tell that “Balasaheb Deoras, then RSS chief, wrote a letter to Indira Gandhi pledging to help implement the notorious 20-point programme of Sanjay Gandhi. This is the real character of the RSS. You can decipher a line of action, a pattern. Even during the Emergency, many among the RSS and Jana Sangh who came out of the jails gave mafinaamas (apologies.) They were the first to apologise. Only their leaders remained in jail: Atal Behari Vajpayee, LK Advani, even Arun Jaitley. But the RSS did not fight the Emergency. So why is the BJP trying to appropriate that memory?”

Prabhash Joshi’s conclusion was that “They are not a fighting force and they are never keen to fight. They are basically a compromising lot. They are never genuinely against the government.”
TV Rajeswar, who served as Governor of Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim after his retirement from service, in his book, ‘India: The Crucial Years” [Harper Collins] corroborated the fact that “Not only they (RSS) were supportive of this [Emergency], they wanted to establish contact apart from Mrs. Gandhi, with Sanjay Gandhi also.” Rajeswar in an interview with Karan Thapar disclosed that Deoras “quietly established a link with the PM’s house and expressed strong support for several steps taken to enforce order and discipline in the country. Deoras was keen to meet Mrs. Gandhi and Sanjay. But Mrs. Gandhi refused.”[i]

According to Rajeswar’s book, “RSS, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation, was banned in the wake of the Emergency. But its chief, Balasaheb Deoras, quietly established a link with the PM’s house and expressed strong support to several steps taken to enforce order and discipline in the country. Sanjay Gandhi’s concerted drive to enforce family planning, particularly among Muslims, had earned Deoras’s approbation.”

Rajeswar also shared the fact that even after Emergency the “organization (RSS) had specifically conveyed its support to the Congress in the post-emergency elections.” It will be interesting to note that even according to Subramanian Swamy, in the Emergency period, most of the senior leaders of RSS had betrayed the struggle against Emergency.

The contemporary documents in the RSS archives prove the narratives of Prabhash Joshi and Rajeswar. The third supremo of RSS, Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras wrote the first letter to Indira Gandhi within two months of the imposition of Emergency. It was the time when state terror was running amok.

In a letter dated August 22, 1975, he began with this praise of Indira:
“I heard your address to the nation which you delivered on August 15, 1975, from Red Fort on the radio in jail [Yervada jail] with attention. Your address was timely and balanced so I decided to write to you.”[ii]

Indira Gandhi did not respond to it. So Deoras wrote another letter to Indira on November 10, 1975. He began his letter with congratulating her on being cleared by the Supreme Court of disqualification which was ordered by the Allahabad High Court, “All the five Justices of the Supreme Court have declared your election constitutional, heartiest greetings for it.” It is to be noted that opposition was of the opinion that this judgment was ‘managed’ by Congress. In the course of the letter, he declared that “RSS has been named in the context of Jaiprakash Narayan’s movement. The government has also connected RSS with Gujarat movement and Bihar movement without any reason. The Sangh has no relation to these movements.”[iii]

Since Indira Gandhi did not respond to this letter also, RSS chief got hold of Vinoba Bhave who supported the Emergency religiously and was a favourite of Indira Gandhi. In a letter dated January 12, 1976, he begged that Acharya should suggest the removal of the ban on RSS.[iv] 

Since Acharya too did not respond to Deoras letter, he wrote another letter, without a date, in desperation:
“According to press reports respected PM [Indira Gandhi] is going to meet you at Pavnar Ashram on January 24. At that time there will be a discussion about the present condition of the country. I beg you to try to remove the wrong assumptions of PM about RSS so that ban on RSS is lifted and RSS members are released from jails. We are looking forward to the times when RSS and its members are able to contribute to the plans of progress which are being run in all the fields under the leadership of PM.”[v]

Riding the juggernaut of the rulers, especially the autocratic ones, has been an old practice of RSS. It was this reason that no leader and cadre of RSS participated in the anti-colonial freedom struggle. In fact, the RSS worships brute force and totalitarianism. The most prominent ideologue of the RSS, the second boss of the organization, Golwalkar decreed as back as in 1940 that, “The RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”[vi]

Recently, the former President of the Indian Republic, Pranab Mukherjee was invited by the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat to be the chief guest at its graduation ceremony for the new recruits. Pranab Mukherjee was indicted as one of the top leaders of Congress for Emergency excesses. The tragedy of RSS is that India continues to be run under a democratic polity so its love for brazen power has to be balanced by double-game.

The post Emergency diaries: The usual RSS doublespeak appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In this interview with the Indian Cultural Forum, Sanjay Kak discusses the threat to freedom of expression in the undeclared state of emergency India is currently in and his book Witness, which is a collection of photographs by nine photographers from Kashmir. 

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

The post Sanjay Kak on the Undeclared Emergency in India and his Book Witness appeared first on SabrangIndia.