New Delhi. The year was 1975 and the date was June 25. On that date, it seemed that the then PM Indira Gandhi would resign from the post after the Allahabad High Court canceled the election. The news was coming that Indira had even written her resignation, but she did not resign from the post till late night. In the deepening night, people fell asleep in the country. Then in the morning when he opened his eyes and saw the newspapers and listened to the radio, it came to know that Indira Gandhi had declared an internal emergency in the country. After all, on whose behest Indira Gandhi, who was going to resign, imposed emergency, today we are going to tell you this.
Khushwant Singh, who was a well-known editor in his book Truth, Love and a Little Malice, has written the complete details sequentially. Khushwant had a good foothold in the Gandhi family. He wrote in the book that the then CM of West Bengal Siddharth Shankar Rai persuaded Indira Gandhi not to resign from the post of PM. According to Khushwant, it was Rai who told Indira that internal emergency was the only solution and then late in the night the order was signed from the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. This whole plan was kept so secret that after the issue of the order, in the cabinet meeting the next day, Indira had signed the ministers regarding this on the last date.
With the declaration of Emergency, Indira Gandhi started imprisoning opposition leaders one by one. All the leaders including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Madhu Limaye, George Fernandes were arrested since the night of 25 June. Censorship applied to newspapers. It was made necessary to pass every news through the eyes of the government machinery. Khushwant Singh has written in his book that only Ramnath Goenka’s newspaper Indian Express fought this censorship without fear. As a result, the power to the institute was cut. Newsprint quota reduced. During this there were also allegations of forced sterilization. Emergency was in force for more than a year. People generally came to know about Indira’s decision to impose emergency through newspapers.
After the Emergency, a cartoon was in the news a lot. It was shown that the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed had signed the emergency order while lying in the bathtub.
The current PM Narendra Modi had disguised as a Sikh to avoid arrest during the Emergency. This photo of him is still discussed a lot.
Apart from Modi, Subramanian Swamy also disguised as a Sikh during the Emergency. Few people have seen this photo of Swami in Sikh garb.