Author: Anuradha Dutt
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 5, 2007
Mrs Gandhi snuffed out democracy with the help of a pliant President. Pratibha Patil will be equally willing to do the dynasty's bidding.
This time, the Indian media forgot to mark the anniversary of Mrs Indira Gandhi's infamous Emergency - the 32nd, to be precise - by recalling the historic resistance against the most ignoble period in post-independence history, when the dictatorial Congress Government at the Centre crushed fundamental rights to liberty and freedom of speech, and brutally persecuted and jailed Opposition leaders and activists.
This reign of terror, unleashed by the state with the compliance of the police and Congress sycophants, as well as spineless Nehru-Gandhi family camp followers from among the intelligentsia and fourth estate, lasted from June 25, 1975 to March 23, 1977. The scars left are indelibly imprinted on the nation's psyche.
This renders the general forgetfulness of this shameful episode in the month gone by all the more strange. Perhaps, the preoccupation with the coming presidential election and the dubious antecedents of the Congress nominee for the august post eclipsed other concerns.
Yet, it should have been to the contrary as the President at that time, in the mid-1970s, was instrumental in declaring the State of Emergency on the advice of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. And that action blackened his reputation forever.
A popular cartoon by Abu showed President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in his bath tub, stretching out his hand to sign the proclamation of Emergency. A dependent of the Nehru-Gandhi family, he has rightly been consigned to the dustbin of history.
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat its mistakes. The Congress's choice of Ms Pratibha Patil, a dynasty loyalist, as the UPA-Left combine's presidential nominee is a grim reminder of the events of three decades ago, when Ahmed was made President at Mrs Gandhi's behest simply because he was a family loyalist.
Ahmed behaved like a retainer, instead of Head of State, during India's darkest hour, meekly assenting to the Emergency on the pretext of safeguarding national security at a time when the Opposition, led by Jaiprakash Narain, was on the warpath. His acquiescence was especially reviled because in the run-up to becoming President in August 1974, he had pledged not to be a pliable tool of the Union Cabinet.
Within less than a year, he violated his assurance to the people without any compunction, wilfully ignoring the true reason for imposing Emergency. And that was the Allahabad High Court's negation on June 12, 1975 of Mrs Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha. Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha, ruling on a petition filed by her defeated rival Raj Narain, declared her election null and void because she had misused Government machinery for her campaign.
Rather than relinquishing power gracefully, she and her caucus of advisers chose to subvert democracy, ban dissent and jail political opponents on the most specious grounds. She even amended the Constitution so as to exonerate herself from guilt in the electoral fraud case.
The President - and the communists largely - turned a blind eye to her transgressions.
These facts bear recounting because of the amazing similarities between the situation then and now. A few legatees of the Indira caucus now hold the reins of power, with communist support, perpetuating the culture of sycophancy.
Like Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Ms Patil, too, has given an assurance that she will not be a rubber stamp President if elected. Yet, if her past is evidence, she will be as much of a family retainer as him.
For, their careers and personas are very similar. The former remained a Congressman all his life, rising to eminence under the patronage of Jawaharlal Nehru. After Nehru's demise, he switched his allegiance to Mrs Gandhi, and prospered, being finally rewarded with the President's office.
In his defence, it may be said that he was a freedom fighter, who was jailed at least twice during the 'Quit India' movement. But one inglorious act was his undoing. He kept on approving continuation of Emergency every six months until her decision, made under acute pressure, to hold Lok Sabha elections in March 1977.
Ms Patil's career follows a similar course of loyalty to the family being amply rewarded. Her first mentor was Mrs Gandhi, whom she defended, instead of the democratic ideal, during the Emergency. Thereafter, she declared allegiance to Rajiv Gandhi and later Ms Sonia Gandhi.
The President's oath requires the incumbent to swear loyalty to the Constitution of India, not the first family of the Congress. Will Ms Patil, by now proven to be extremely vulnerable on account of the various charges of wrongdoing against her, be able to exercise the right choice while choosing between the Constitution and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty?