NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Emergency: Journalism had its share of dissenters and toadies

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

It's twenty-five years since the late Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country. But for journalists who were at the receiving end of the then government's strong-arm tactics, the nightmare simply refuses to fade away.

"It will be difficult for youngsters to understand the kind of terror we experienced. For one, nobody had anticipated that an Indian government would turn dictatorial overnight. And when it did, its ferocity, to those of us who were determined to resist censorship as far as possible, was mind-boggling," said Devsagar Singh, senior editor of Financial Express to rediff.com.

In those days, Singh covered the Delhi University beat for the Indian Express. He spoke of Intelligence Bureau sleuths tailing him all over the campus the moment he reached the law faculty bus stop.

"What was striking was they never made any pretence of disguising themselves. In fact, they performed their task with a flourish, to create a psychological fear among journalists," Singh said.

There were intrepid reporters, willing to risk the government's wrath to get at the truth. Then there were those who grabbed the opportunity to ingratiate themselves with the powers-that-be. This they did by spying on their colleagues for the government.

Even Bharatiya Janata Party members, including some prominent faces in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, had made peace with the ruling dispensation after being intimidated by threats. At least two BJP members who were then in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, suddenly began singing praises of Mrs Gandhi's 20-pont programme and Sanjay Gandhi's four-point programme.

According to senior columnist Kuldip Nayar, the government armed itself with draconian powers and proceeded to impose censorship on the press. It detained numerous journalists under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act or Defence of India Rules. Nayar wrote his book In jail while he was detained under MISA.

"Some journalists decided that it was better to take on Mrs Gandhi's draconian measures rather than to give in to the threats and warnings of a regime that would do justice to a banana republic," Nayar told rediff.com. He also confirmed that many sought to humour Mrs Gandhi and her government by volunteering to spy on their upright colleagues.

On one occasion, journalist Virendra Kapoor chided Ambika Soni, then a young, ambitious and upcoming politician, for her arrogant behaviour. Soni told Kapoor to mind his own business. She had caught the eye of Sanjay Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, and was part of their charmed circle.

"After Emergency was revoked and Mrs Gandhi lost the elections, she met me and said that I should not hold anything against her because she was only a cog in the wheel," Kapoor said. Today, the two of them are friends.

However, not everyone was willing to face the consequences. "When the heat intensified, some journalists apparently thought that discretion was the better part of valour and changed colour overnight. They started praising what they said was the positive fallout of the Emergency," Kapoor pointed out.

Jyotirmoy Dutta, a fearless journalist, proved to be a constant source of irritation for Mrs Gandhi, for his critical pieces in English and Bengali periodicals. The then West Bengal chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray made it a prestige issue to nab Dutta and ordered that Dutta be arrested at all costs. The latter took up the challenge and surfaced in Delhi, at the Tughlak Road residence on a senior colleague.

One day, Dutta was having egg curry and rice at a friend's residence in Delhi when he got wind that IB sleuths were likely to arrest him. He abandoned his meal, boarded a Delhi Transport Corporation bus and went underground once again, to resurface only after Emergency was revoked.

"Siddhartha babu was under the impression that he was god's gift to mankind. He assured Mrs Gandhi his help in overcoming the most obdurate of journalists who criticised the Emergency," Dutta told rediff.com.

But as he pointed out, the people and the country had the last laugh. Not only was Mrs Gandhi and the Congress party trounced in the 1977 polls but she herself admitted that it was not possible for Emergency to be clamped in India again.

The democrat in India had tamed the despot!

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report