A witness to the Emergency rule (1975-77)

A witness to the Emergency rule (1975-77)

That morning, soon after I had arrived at our tailoring shop in Shrirampur, the cycle riding newspaper boy had delivered the newspaper. I was a 10th standard student then but was addicted to newspaper reading. The news content of the newspaper on that day startled me and immediately I pointed it out to my father. The day was June 27, 1975. Sakal, the Marathi newspaper, which I was reading had carried the news that an internal emergency was imposed in the country on June 25 late night and that leaders of all opposition parties including Socialist leader Jaiprakash Narayan, former Union Minister Morarji Desai, and Jan Sangh leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee have been arrested in various cities and sent to jails.

Although a minor, I understood the significance of the news. I had been reading newspapers thoroughly for the past many months which had been a turbulent period for the country. I had read about the students’ agitations in Gujarat and later in Bihar, the nationwide Chakka Jam railway strike led by firebrand leader George Fernandes and the very recent Allhabad High Court’s ruling disqualifying Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as Raebareli MP. Having known the chronology, I understood the ramifications of the promulgation of the Emergency and imprisonment of all Opposition leaders in the country. The atmosphere in the country at that time was surcharged and I too was affected by that.

The news in most newspapers carried details of how the main opposition leaders were picked up from their residences in most undignified manner at very odd hours. As a reader, I was indeed indignant at the treatment meted out to these national leaders. It was the first day of the Emergency and obviously the censor officials had not yet reached at newspapers offices. Otherwise these details of the arrests would not have been published. The effects of the Emergency were felt only a couple of days later through the blank spaces in the middle of sentences in news and the blank spaces at the pocket cartoons columns and most important, at the editorial and edit articles on the inside editorial page, then reverentially referred to as the soul of any newspaper.

The blank spaces and blank columns on various pages of the newspapers were obviously a result of the censor officials objecting to particular words, sentences, edits or cartoons. Those were the days of linotype setting in English newspapers and hand composition printing technology in Hindi and most regional languages. At night, there was hardly any time left with the newspaper employees for replacing the objected words, sentences, editorials and other articles. But this practice of leaving out blank spaces and columns in newspapers did not last. For, this practice enabled us readers to know that the glaring blank spaces found everywhere in the newspaper pages were the handiwork of the censor officials. The censor officials too soon saw through this game of the newspapers and later even leaving out any spaces and columns blank was strictly forbidden.

Later I heard that a teacher in my school, named Kaduskar, was also arrested. Kaduskar who taught us well and was popular among students, we were told, was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist. Thousands of RSS functionaries all over the country including the organisation’s chief Sarsanghchalak Balasaheb Deoras were also arrested during the Emergency. The series of arrests carried out by the police throughout the country in a short duration must be a unique operation in the post-independence era.

Initially, some stray incidents of some persons protesting against Emergency were published in newspapers. Publication of such news was banned later. Soon there was publication of newspapers in routine style, sans any anti-government or anti-Emergency news or protests of any kinds. “You were asked only to bend, but you crawled,” was the refrain of Lal Krishna Advani as the information and broadcasting minister in the Janata Party government. I can vouch, there was truth in his statement. It was so exciting to read newspapers during the students agitation against Gujarat Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel, the railway strike and the aftermath of the Allahabad High Court ruling against Indira Gandhi. Alas, for an avid newspaper reader like me, the newspapers suddenly became insipid and boring.

Soon we common people returned to normal life, notwithstanding the Emergency rule. It had no impact on common people who were more interested in matters of earning their bread and butter.

Nonetheless, yes, there were some visible consequences of the Emergency promulgation which had far-reaching impact on the lives of the common people.

After the Emergency was declared, the government had imposed a total ban of Matka activities which were very rampant in Mumbai and also in other parts of Maharashtra. Indira Gandhi had also ordered arrest of the Mumbai-based Matka king Ratan Khatri who ran the illegal gambling activities single handed and also pocketed the entire profits. The Matka or private lottery business had created a parallel economy in Mumbai and also rest parts of Maharashtra. The Matka business empire had spread its network in urban and rural areas as well. The Matka results were declared at midnight and were carried by most reputed English and regional languages newspapers prominently on the first page the very next morning. The Matka results were code named as Sona Chandi, Mumbai Kalyan, Open Close and so on. Circulation of many newspapers in Mumbai, Pune and elsewhere was solely dependent on publication of the Matka results.

At the small Sonar ( Jewelers) Lane in Shrirampur town where we had a tailoring shop, there were three Matka bookies who in their small kiosks were busy throughout the day accepting Matka bets from customers. The Matka bets for the common people were as low as two paise, three paise, one ana (six paise) or maximum 10 paise. I have never observed any person betting for more than 10 paise, let alone for one rupee.

A neighbour shopkeeper who had a well furnished ostensible jewellery shop ran a Matka Pedhi and collected the Matka bets from Matka bookies in the town with 9 pm as the deadline. The Matka Pedhi owner was the richest shopkeeper in the entire Sonar (Jewellers) Lane. Lives of a large number of persons in Maharashtra were ruined because of their Matka addiction.

After the arrest of Matka King Ratan Khatri, the Matka operations came to a total standstill. After the lifting of the Emergency and release of Khatri from prison, Matka activities were resumed. But the Makta industry never saw again its golden period which existed before the Emergency rule. Ratan Khatri died on May 9, 2020 and during the Lockdown period not many newspapers wrote obits of this man, a living legend who had once ran a parallel economy. To be frank, I was not aware that this legend who ran an empire five decades ago was still alive.

Yes, there was another remarkable Emergency-related activity that was taking place in our Sonar Lane in Shrirampur and which was also obviously a nationwide phenomenon. As I sat on a wooden bench kept outside our `Parkhe Tailors’ shop, I watched a large number of families visiting the neighbouring jewellery shops and later walking out carrying big brass and copper utensils including urns, pots, buckets, and even glass and plates. A prominent and most expensive vessel among these used to be a copper made heavy utensil which served as a traditional water heater, called as Panyancha Bamb in Marathi.

All these heavy and light utensils were mortgaged with the jewellers who also doubled up as moneylenders. During the Emergency, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had abolished the practise of private money. Money lenders in the country were directed to return all the mortgaged materials including, gold, silver and also brass, copper utensils without demanding the agreed interest and the principal amount from their respective owners or face the legal consequences.

The returning of all mortgaged materials to their rightful owners continued for some weeks as more and more as people kept visiting their moneylenders when they learnt of the new law. I could see the glee on faces of members of families - men, women and children carrying in their hands, on shoulders and heads the utensils they had recovered without paying any cash to their moneylenders. For once, the law and the law enforcement personnel were on their side.

These beneficiaries were not aware of the Emergency rule but they were reaping fruits of one of the fall outs of the prevalent situation in the country. I had never witnessed any arguments between the people and moneylenders as the mortgaged materials were returned without even a murmur. Nor was ever a police personnel called at the moneylender’s shop to settle a dispute. Such was the fear of the law enforcement authorities during this period.

Although newspapers had become very dull and boring to read, there was a brighter side for the people to much talk about. The trains in Mumbai and elsewhere had after a long time started running punctually. It was also said that government officers and employees were also too scared to demand bribes from people for carrying out works in government offices, such was the fear of law enforcement authorities during this period. Sarvodaya leader Acharya Vinoba Bhave who was observing a vow of silence at his Pavnar Ashram during this time is said to have described the Emergency rule as Anushasan Parva, an era of discipline.

My neighbour in Pimpri Chinchwad Vijay S. Deshpande who has retired 15 years ago was a junior officer in Union industries department in New Delhi when the Emergency was imposed. He recalls how the rule of punctuality was enforced at the behest of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in North Block and South Block in the Capital. It is said that Indira Gandhi (There was no Prime Minister's Office - PMO- then) had one day ordered closure of the main gates of these government premises the next day exactly at 9 am. Consequently, for the first time in their careers, many senior bureaucrats of the ranks of chief secretaries and others were either denied entry in their offices or had the late remark against their names in the registers on account of their late arrival , says Deshpande .

The situation prevailing in the first few months after the imposition of the Emergency certainly came as a relief for the common people. Later on people got accustomed to the Emergency rule as even many political workers and activists were released a few months later, barring the main political leaders.

Significantly Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader S. A. Dange and Socialist leaders S.M. Joshi and N.G. Goray were among those non-Congress leaders in Maharashtra to whom Indira Gandhi had spared from arrests. Among these, Thackeray and Dange had openly supported the Emergency.

The excesses in the family planning campaigns implemented by Sanjay Gandhi and his team came in later stage of the Emergency.

Most of the political leaders and RSS workers were detained under the Maintenance of the Internal Security Act or MISA. ( Laloo Prasad Yadav - one of the political veterans sprang up by the Emergency - has named one of his daughters as Misa). Those arrested were treated as political prisoners, provided newspapers and even allowed to interact with each others. That is how there was a `reconciliation’ among the socialists, Jan Sangh, RSS, and other political party leaders, leading to the birth of the Janata Party soon after the release of these leaders.

The strict enforcement of law and discipline in government offices and public life started disappearing soon after Indira Gandhi relaxed restrictions of the Emergency in January 1977 and general elections in the country were announced.

The rest which is history is known to all.