26th June is a black day in the post independence era. India
with large population below the poverty line and lack of basic amenities like education
still stands apart globally in democratic tradition. The only black spot in
Indian Democratic history is the period of emergency from 26th June 1975 to 21st
March 1977. Any proud Indian believing in democracy cannot but remember those
horrifying days of complete anarchy, dictatorship and censorship.
Indira government unleashed terror, systematically denouncing every democratic
institution and compromised judiciary. Many so called free thinking intellectuals
and academician surrendered themselves to the authoritarian Smt Indira Gandhi
and shamelessly praised her, protesting at the alter of power.
In those tough times it was unthinkable to raise voice against the
government. But some groups of young fellows, mostly owning their allegiance to
RSS, and deep-rooted love for the nation, could not bear the agony of this
stifling silence and decided to raise their voice. I was among them, the
youngest of the lot at the age of 13 years, in my formative years. I decided to
fight the might through the Gandhian tradition of Satyagraha, a non-violent
means of assertive firmness to defy all that is not good for the country.
Abraham Lincoln had said that democracy is ‘By the people, for the people
and of the people’ and so civil vigilance is the cost of democracy, without
which it will never remain ‘..of the people’. India is not new to democratic
traditions; in times as old as Siddhartha Gautama, we had Gram Sabhas; these
Sabhas took collective decisions. Democratic form of governance is the best
choice for individual freedom. My experiments with democracy began very early;
I value freedom to the exclusion of all other things in life.
Whatever the shortcoming Shri Jawaharlal Nehru had, but he is to be
credited for building institutions. But Indira Gandhi was authoritarian,
successively undermining all democratic Institutions in the country. In 1975,
when Allahabad High Court nullified her elections for use of unfair means, she
imposed Emergency and suspended all democratic rights including fundamental
right of free speech. At a young age of 13 years, with fresh mind, this was
unacceptable to me. I wanted to break the shackles of all bondage imposed under
Emergency.
All the political activities, with most of the political leaders in one or
the other jail throughout the country, were at a standstill. There was fear all
around; terror of the government put every body in superficial discipline.
Propaganda of efficiency, law and order and discipline was baffling and press
censorship led to complete disconnect of the people with the reality.
It was left to RSS to defend democracy and overthrow Congress’s
dictatorial rule. Being connected to RSS from my early childhood, and belonging
to a RSS family, when the organisation gave a call for an all India Satyagraha,
I decided to fight for a cause in a non-violent manner and firm resolve to
overthrow Indira regime.
Aapat Kal Sangharsh Samiti was formed and a
nationwide Satyagraha was planned. The format of satyagraha was kept simple;
instructions were to collect at some point of conglomeration; like market
place, university campus, some big event, in small groups of 10 to 15 people; start
shouting slogan against dictatorship, distributing cyclostyled or photocopied pamphlets
with pro democratic messages, denouncing emergency and start walking till the
police arrests the participants.
Our Satyagraha was held on 19th November 1975 on the birthday of Smt
Indira Gandhi. Government had planned a gathering of school children, their
parents, foreign diplomats and international media to commemorate Indira ji’s
birthday. The program was to be addressed by President Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.
We were eight people; I was the youngest amongst them. We entered the venue
at national stadium, India gate, New Delhi. The stage was in the viewer’s
gallery. The children's were to perform in the center field and audiences were
sitting around and behind the stage. We entered one block above, immediately
behind the stage. Next to us was foreign media and diplomat’s block. After the performance
of the children, as the President took to the podium to speak, we started
shouting anti emergency slogans, ‘Indira
Gandhi murdabad, down-down emergency, shame-shame….’ and started running towards
the stage and I jumped on it. I had handful pamphlets that I threw towards the
foreign media block. Police immediately arrested all of us.
Police took us to Tilak Marg Police station for FIR, detention and
questioning. The overnight stay at the police station was very scary; we were
put up in a lock up in a single cell. Police took each one of us from the cell
for questioning. Several loud sound of scolding, beating and screaming was
reaching us from the adjoining rooms. After questioning the individual was
taken to another room, then the next person was taken out. We had heard so many
stories about third degree atrocities of the police; those pictures were vividly
in front of us.
We stayed in these cells, for about twenty-four hours, the toilet
partitioned with a small shoulder height wall, was within the cell itself.
There was a bucket of water for washing hands etc. all this was very unhygienic
and smelly. Next day we were taken to magistrate, I being 13 years old was sent
to children’s jail behind Ambedkar stadium and other collogues were taken to
Tihar Jail, this was a big jolt for me, being left alone to fend myself.
I was made to stay with criminals in a dormitory set up, sleeping on the
ground. Daily we were given blankets
from the common pool. Staying in the room locked up in the evening with all
types of criminals, under trials and sentenced, for pickpocketing, rape and
murder. In the morning I was allowed to use common toilets, which were
extremely dirty. I had to wear jail uniform from the common pool and simple
food was given to me. I had to work along with the prisoners for cleaning,
washing and other daily work within the premises.
During my lockup of about three months from 19th November to
12th February 1976, I could not even meet my parents, my mother was arrested
and was kept in Tihar Jail and my father who was professor in Lady Hardinge
Medical College, was also arrested on 25th December, 1975 and was
initially in Tihar Jail and then later in the Nagpur jail. I was arrested under
Defense of India Rule (DIR), which we referred to as Defense of Indira Rule. I
was a student of class 8th in Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, school at New Delhi.
Occasionally counselor came to me, coursing me to sign Mafinama (pardon
letter), trying to convince me that it will help in my release, and that I am
wasting my time in this fight against the might of a powerful government. Very
rarely I was taken to a Magistrate for recording my statement, but all the
uncertainty, mental and physical torture did not budge me to ask for pardon.
After three months in Jail I decided go for judiciary bail and continue
our fight from outside. These three-months had brought, lot of trauma for me
and my family. My father was suspended from his government job. I lost my
precious study time. The isolation and seclusion of the Jail and the horror of
continuous, 24*7 stay with criminals was a nightmare beyond comprehension of
ordinary people. The uncertain future and the dark ages ahead was always creating
a fear of the unknown, but standing for a cause and upholding democracy was the
strong motivation.
Our case went on till the new government was formed and were withdrawn in
late 1978. Till that time I had to go to court every week for attending dates
of the case. Our family case was referred to Shah Commission, set up to take
note of Emergency atrocities.
Those formative years and the experiences thereon gave me lot to think
and contemplate for my future journey. The courage, the will power and them the
confidence from the success of our movement has always filled me with pride.
Gopal Krishna Agrawal
Tweeter: @gopalkagarwal
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