Indira’s Emergency and Modi’s Neo-Emergency Though the character and contents of the current neo-Emergency are different, there is a common thread between Emergency then and now- Governance by Force and Fear. M.G. Devasahayam Forty-five years ago around midnight on June survival and family aggrandisement. It was one 25/26, 1975, the President of India issued this big swoop overtaking the whole country proclamation: “In exercise of the powers spreading a psychosis of fear and terror…” conferred by clause (1) of Article 352 of the This was then. How about now? On the night Constitution, I, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, President of March 24, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra of India, by this Proclamation declare that a Modi made a proclamation which took effect grave emergency exists whereby the security from midnight: “In the last two days, several of India is threatened by internal disturbances.” parts of the country have been put under I was then the District Magistrate of Chandigarh lockdown. These efforts by state governments Union Territory with Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), should be taken with utmost sincerity…. The the Enemy No.1 of the state as my prisoner. nation is taking a very important decision today. Hence, I had a fair insight of the happenings at From midnight tonight onwards, the entire high levels in Delhi. country, please listen carefully, the entire country This ‘National Emergency’ could be shall go under complete lockdown. In order to described as an instrument by Prime Minister protect the country, and each of its citizens, from Indira Gandhi to ‘govern a democratic polity midnight tonight, a full ban is being imposed on through despotic means’ and in the process people from stepping out of their homes. All the extinguishing freedom and liberty. With the States in the country, all the Union Territories, presidential proclamation, Fundamental Rights each district, each municipality, each village, under Article 14, Article 21 and several clauses each locality is being put under lockdown. This of Article 22 of the Constitution stood suspended. is like a curfew….” In short, India lost its democracy. Maintenance This proclamation was not under India’s of Internal Security Act and Rules were made Constitution. As acknowledged by the Prime harsh and courts were prohibited from Minister, states had imposed lockdown reviewing them, leave alone giving any relief to exercising power under Section 2 of the the preventive detainees which numbered over Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. Disaster 100,000! Management Act-2005 (DMA) which was Civil Rights stalwart Rajni Kothari succinctly invoked to impose ‘complete lockdown’ do not described Indira’s Emergency era thus: “It was give any such specific powers to the central a state off-limits, a government that hijacked government. Section 6 (2) (i) only empowers it the whole edifice of the state, a ruling party and “to take such other measures for the prevention leader who in effect treated the state as their of disaster, or the mitigation, or preparedness...” personal estate. It was the imposition of a highly This provision does not relate to pandemic concentrated apparatus of power on a disaster. When state governments had already fundamentally federal society and the turning imposed lockdowns under the relevant law, over of this centralised apparatus for personal there was no need for central government to August 2020 THE RADICAL HUMANIST 3 override them and super-impose a draconian Then, when the infection has been properly nationwide lockdown that too with less than four incubated and intensified, through some hours’ notice. As it is, this has turned out to be a combination of incompetence and callousness, neo-Emergency that also spread fear and terror. allow these millions to be disseminated into the What has this neo-Emergency actually hitherto relatively uninfected hinterland. In this resulted in? Without any due process or authority way, the actual policy, as enacted on the ground, of law, it placed every citizen of the country maximises both the economic catastrophe, and under house arrest depriving him/her liberty and the ferocity of the epidemic .... Whence this freedom as enshrined in the Constitution. It brilliant policy, this hybrid of lock-down and herd prevented them from exercising their immunity, which gives us the worst of both constitutional right to ‘livelihood’ thereby options—economic disaster, and a rampaging exposing them to poverty, penury and destitution. epidemic?” It let loose the brutality of ‘police raj’ on every Noam Chomsky, arguably the most citizen treating him/her as ‘criminal’ or part of celebrated thinker of our times, called it ‘unlawful assembly’. By slapping sedition “genocidal” and said, “Indian Prime Minister charges and indulging in arrest for even Narendra Modi gave a four-hour warning before expressing mild opinion about the way a total lockdown. That has affected over a governments are handling the pandemic, it billion people. Some of them have nowhere to spread terror among citizens and journalists. By go… People in the informal economy, which is treating individuals as beasts to be beaten-up a huge number of people, are just cast out. Go and sprayed with chemicals, the State took walk back to your village, which may be a away his/her dignity which is the most precious thousand miles away. Die on the roadside. This possession of a human being. The misery of is a huge catastrophe in the making, right on top millions of migrant workers and the resultant of the strong efforts to impose the ultra-right excruciating exodus, has put India to shame in Hindutva doctrines that are at the core of Modi’s the international arena! thinking and background.” Since it is neo-Emergency there must be Chomsky has said what has to be said. crony-capitalism, and there is plenty even as During Indira’s Emergency period people the country is bleeding from deep multiple cuts. moved in hushed silence, stunned and Privatising electricity; selling-off public sector; traumatised by the harrowing goings on. Bulk enacting harsh labour laws to facilitate of civil services crawled when asked to bend. corporates; handing over protected forests to Higher judiciary bowed to the dust and was carpetbaggers and awarding huge contracts to willing to rule that under Emergency regime, the favourite few. An unaccounted PMCARES citizens did not even have the ‘right to life’. Fund through coerced contributions! And Politicians of all hue and colour, barring Delhi’s Central Vista to build a palatial honourable exceptions, lay supine and prostrate. parliament building and prime minister’s house! As for citizens, an arbitrary and arrogant state This neo-Emergency and its enforcement turned them into mere ‘subjects.’ Things are no have been condemned by genuine experts. different now, and under neo-Emergency, Calling it ‘insane’ Vikram Patel of Harvard’s whatever left of the institutions of democratic School of Public Health said, “Lockdown when governance are being totally annihilated. infection levels are low, but in such a manner Governance by force and fear is the new norm. that produces intensified infection among the No wonder Noam Chomsky calls India an forcibly disrupted millions of informal workers. ‘unliveable country!’ 4 THE RADICAL HUMANIST August 2020 Like during Indira’s Emergency, Union the Delhi Police descend to such despicable Council of Ministers is non-existent. States have levels? been drained-out with hardly any role to play. It all leads to one thing. Though the character Parliament has been totally subdued and had and contents of the current neo-Emergency are passed the Nazi-type Citizenship Amendment different, there is a common thread between Act (CAA) without whimper. When the entire Emergency then and now- Governance by Force country rose in protest, a brutal ‘police raj’ was and Fear. The only difference is that the method let loose even on women and children. Now, adopted then was ‘Jhatka’ and now it is ‘Halal’. under the cover of lockdown, police all over, Effect on freedom and liberty is the same, particularly in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are busy probably more chilling now! hounding protesters with sedition charges and Emergency 1975 was eyeball-to-eyeball are busy registering FIRs and arresting youth confrontation between Indira Gandhi and JP in and students on flimsiest of grounds. This, while which the former lost. After visiting and touring protecting and shielding Hindutva elements who India during Emergency and meeting Indira have either indulged in or instigated heinous Gandhi, Claire Sterling wrote a piece in New crimes. York Times titled “Ruler of 600 million—and Even a mild-mannered public intellectual like alone.” What she said was poignant, Harsh Mander is not being spared! There are “Somebody once told me, as I was traveling talks that he is being hauled up and may even around India, that the one thing worse than trying be arrested for calling upon youth during anti- to govern the country by democratic persuasion CAA protests to maintain peace and adhere to would be trying to govern it by force. Yet that is “Gandhian Ahimsa.” Yes, in an atmosphere how Mrs. Gandhi is trying to do now.” fouled by hatred, violence and intolerance, peace The ‘Iron Lady’ failed then. Why should it and Ahimsa (non-violence) are indeed crimes! be any different now? As the wise one said: Considering the fact that Harsh Mander had “Those who do not learn from the past have no resigned from IAS in the wake of the 2002 future!” Gujarat ‘genocide’ and was the first person to The writer is a former Army and IAS call it ‘Nazi-type pogrom’, we know where the Officer. The views are personal. anger against him comes from. But pray, should Courtesy News Click, 24 Jun 2020 Articles/Reports for The Radical Humanist Dear Friends, Please mail your articles/reports for publication in the RH to: [email protected] or post them to: G-3/617, Shalimar Garden Extn.