In the month of June, the climate of India is so hot and full of heat that everything seems like a boiling, but in 1975 the heat of the country’s politics was so much that it left behind the heat of the weather.
In fact, the Allahabad High Court on 12 June 1975 convicted the then Prime Minister of the country Indira Gandhi for the use of government machinery in the election and declared her election invalid.
This entire matter begins from the year 1971. Lok Sabha elections were held in the country and the Congress won a tremendous victory. Out of a total of 518, Congress won 352 seats and Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister. He won his traditional seat from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
Indira defeated Rajnarayan of Joint Socialist Party by more than one lakh votes. Rajnarayan was so confident about his victory that he had already taken out the victory procession before the election results. Here Indira won the election and went to Parliament, while Rajnarayan lost the election and went to court.
He handed over a list to the court in which Indira Gandhi had different allegations like corruption, rigging in elections and misuse of government machinery. On the basis of these allegations, he demanded from the court that the election of Indira should be canceled.
Justice Sinha was hearing the case. He heard the arguments of both sides and now made the statement of the Prime Minister. In March, Justice Sinha ordered Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to appear in court. This was the first time in history when the Prime Minister of the country was going to appear in the court. On 18 March 1975, Indira Gandhi reached the court to make a statement. He cross -examined him for about 5 hours.
After the hearing and statements were completed, the court canceled Indira’s election on this day and also stopped contesting her elections for 6 years. The Congress did not have any fear that the court could give such a decision.
After meetings and consultations, it was decided that this decision of the High Court would be challenged in the Supreme Court. 11 days later, on 23 June 1975, Indira challenged the decision in the Supreme Court and demanded a stay on the verdict.
The very next day, Justice VR Krishna Iyer ruled while hearing Indira’s petition. He said that he would not completely stop the decision of the High Court, but Indira may remain Prime Minister. It also said that during this time she can participate in the proceedings of Parliament, but will not be able to vote.
On the one hand, the Congress did not get any relief from the Supreme Court, on the other hand the opposition was constantly demanding resignation from Indira. On the very next day of the Supreme Court’s decision, opposition leaders organized a rally on 25 June at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. Addressing a huge crowd at the rally, Jayaprakash Narayan read a part of a poem by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and gave the slogan – ‘Empty the throne that the public comes’.
JP’s rally ended here and Indira reached Rashtrapati Bhavan there. A proposal for emergency had been prepared by night. All the big leaders including JP were arrested. At 8 am, Indira announced an emergency on the radio. With this, the country went into its worst phase of 21 months.
