Let’s recall the lessons from the Emergency
Live MintThose of you old enough to remember the early 1970s—and I hasten to add that even I was at school then!—may recall that as India reeled from the 1973 oil price hike, from global inflation and the civil disobedience of the JP movement, it became common for the educated middle class to say things like, “What India needs is a dictator.” In June 1975, Indira Gandhi suspended civil liberties, locked up the Opposition, censored the press and imposed her Neanderthal son, the thug-like Sanjay, on the nation. These developments worked mainly to the middle class’ advantage but of course they were justified at elite cocktail parties in terms of benefits to the poor. “How does democracy help a hungry man?” or “India’s poor have no interest in freedom of the press” etc., etc. The middle class quickly changed sides, decided that democracy was what made India great after all and embraced the new Janata regime.
History of this topic
Students' textbooks should include chapter on how Emergency was imposed : Former Vice President Venakaiah Naidu
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Review: India’s Undeclared Emergency by Arvind Narrain
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Emergency In India, Fake And Real
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Guess who supported the Emergency? The Communists, of course
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Revisiting the Emergency
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