Indira's Emergency

The year was 1975, Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, the democracy was destroyed & dictatorship was established in INDIA.

National Emergency:

A situation where there is a restriction on fundemental rights of the cititzens for a specific period of time. This is legally possible under Article 352 of the Indian Constitution.
As per Article 325 an emergency may be declared if any situation arises that threatens the security, peace or the stability of the government of the country.
Emergency may be declared for below reasons:

• War: If the country is fighting war with other countries.
• External Aggression : A situation where there is no formal declaration that there will be armed forces used against the country.
• Armed Rebellion (Internal Disturbance): An armed rebellion refers to a violent uprising or revolt against an established authority, often involving the use of weapons. It is typically carried out by a group of people who seek to challenge or overthrow the ruling power.

It is important to note that 1975 was not the first time India went through emergency. Before 1975 Independent India went through emergency two times.

• First emergency:
First emergency was declared by Former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru because of Indo-China war . During the emergency the government used their increased power to control the media, even though the war eneded within a month Former Prime Minister Nehru didn't revoke the emergency. The emergency was revoked after 5 months.
• Second emergency: It was declared by Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 due to Indo-Pak war. Even though the war ended within two weeks the emergency was not lifted till 1977 which is almost for 6 years.

With second emergency still in force Mrs. Indira declared third emergency on Third emergency on 25th June, 1975 This emergency was differnt from previous two emergencies as they both were declared on basis of war(External Aggression). India was fighting battles with China and Pakistan therefore people of India understood that. What was the reason behind third emergency? It all started with 1971 Lok Sabha elections Congress got a massive victory securing 352 seats out of 518 Mrs.Gandhi won by 1,00,000 votes against Raj Narain.
Raj Narain filed an election petition in Allahabad High court challenging Mrs.Gandhi's victory.
An election petition is something that can be filed directly in High court questioning the election results of a particular candidate. The petition has to be filed within 45 days of election results.
In RP act it is mentioned that if a particular candidate is involved in corrupt practices the election of the candidate will be considered as invalid..
Raj Narain raised 14 allegations among them 12 got dismissed but based on the remaining two allegations Mrs. Gandhi's election was invalidated.
The two allegations were: Then what was the problem here?
Yashpal Kapoor submitted his resignation on January 13^th, 1971 and his resignation was accecpted next day, But since he was working on a special duty as Prime Minister Secrtriat, he also needed their approval. Their approval came on January 25^th,1971 then he was appointed as Election Agent on February 04^th,1971. The problem here is he was government officer till January 25^th,1971 but he did deliver two speeches on behalf of Mrs.Gandhi before January 25^th. This is a violation of law under RP act.
Based on these two allegations Allhabad High Court passed judgement that Indira Gandhi has engaged in electionf fraud and banned her for 6 years from holding elected positions which means she will also be unseated as a Prime Minister, later an approval was made in Supreme Court which allowed her partial stay under government judgement given by Allahabad High Court.
She continued as Member of Parliment (MP) in Lok Sabha and could attend parliment meetings until next hearing, But she could not participate in proceedings and vote as Memeber of Parliment and Supreme Court even allowed her to cintinue as Prime Minister until next hearing.
Mrs. Gandhi knew if she lost the case in future then she would have had to step down as Prime Minister, therefore she was not happy with the decision of the court. There was only one thing which she could do to escape this, To declare a state of emergency .
She went near then President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed and advised him to declare a state of emergency. Being a Prime Minister She turned a Democratic nation into a Dictatorship just because she was being punished. There are some people who justify this that there was internal disturbances at that time, When a Prime Minister is being dethroned it's obvious that there will be internal disturbances but those internal disturbances were not against India it was against Mrs. Gandhi
The emergency was declared right after the Supreme Court order and there was no discussion about this in the parliment many of the party members got to know about this few hours before the announcement.
As per the advice of Mrs. Gandhi the President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed announced declared the state of war on June 25^th,1975 and within few hours of announcing the emergency lot of opposition leaders were arrested including L K Advani, Morarji Desai, J P Narayan and many more...The power supply to the news paper in Delhi was disconnected that night so that no news papers could be printed. THIS BEGAN THE DARKEST PERIOD OF INDIAN DEMOCRACY.

• Fundemental rights of citizens were taken away
• People who protested against this were arrested
• Approximately 1Lakh innocent people were arrested including Freedom Fighters

Sanjay Gandhi (Son of Mrs. Gandhi) he wanted to be the next successor of Congress, during emergency period he completely destroyed slums in Delhi and carried out Mass Sterilisation
India's dark history of Sterilisation
An astonishing 6.2 million Indian men were sterilised in just a year which was 15 times more than number of poeple sterilised by Nazis, thousands died from botched operations.
Under the excuse of population control for the purpose of development Sanjay Gandhi did this. People were randomly brought to camp for Sterilisation.
You could be thinking what could be even more worse? The medical procedures were done in extremely unhyginic way. It is not just men who suffered from this even women were forced to get tubectomy done. Total of 8.1 million people were Sterilised in an year.
The emergency was finally with drawn and democracy was established again on March 21^st, 1977.
People got soo furious that both Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi were both defeated very badly in 1977 elections for the first time non-congress government was established.

Below are some images of Sterilisation: