“The Emergency: Never ever, the draconian period should return”

Let us pause and ponder about the Emergency, illegally clamped in 1975 without the consent of competent authority. Post emergency, the recorded statements of individuals revealed that even the union cabinet was not taken into confidence before declaring the  emergency. It was autocracy all the way.

Put honestly, as a fledgling civil servant, I would shudder to recall and re-live the horrors of that draconian phase. The civil servants must be held accountable for the atrocities committed during the period. The gutless bureaucrats, when asked to bend, chose to prostrate before the political class to demonstrate their proximity to the power that be. They were largely responsible for misleading the political supremo surrounded by the coterie of  power-seeking,extra-constitutional authorities. The emergency gaslighted the civil servants with impunity. The bureaucrats behaved like excellent subordinates but bad advisors.
There was no freedom of press with authoritarianism galore. People talked in hushed tones fearing detentions or arrests.

The fundamental rights were suspended without approval of the competent authority.Hundreds of people including the government employees, private persons, journalists and politicians and so on, started disappearing suddenly. They either went underground  or were taken into custody on slightest suspicions with no clue about their well being.

Fortunately, the self-assumed power of the political Executive for unilaterally imposing internal emergency,was subsequently withdrawn by the newly elected successor dispensation by carrying out appropriate,deterrent legislative measures.

A K Saxena ( Former civil servant)