50th Anniversary of Emergency: This is in 1975, exactly one year later when my grandmother died on 9 June 1974. Mere Baba, Hindi grammar Acharya Kishori Das Vajpayee, my mother (late Sharda) and all three of us siblings (I and my two younger sisters Pragya and Pratibha) came to Kankhal, Haridwar. My elder brother, late Rajkrishna Bajpai, Kanpur was doing MSc in Mathematics from IIT and father, late Madhusudan Vajpayee, was working in Dainik Jagran in Kanpur.
Meanwhile, political developments changed rapidly and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced the Emergency. At that time I was about 9 years old and I did not know all these things, but there were constant discussions in this regard at home and outside. This used to make a feeling that the matter is very serious. Baba, whom everyone lovingly called ‘Dada’, was very angry with Indira Gandhi’s actions, and the declaration of Emergency further enhanced her resentment. He used to criticize Indira Gandhi in sharp words from home to Kankhal Chowk, and this criticism used to become very sharp many times.
In the same period, one day when he was telling Indira Gandhi a lot, someone said to him, “Vajpayee ji, CID is behind you. You are criticizing Indira Gandhi during the Emergency, you can be arrested anytime.” Hearing this, he laughed and said, “Hey, this is the reason why I was also thinking that when I stand and want to talk to someone, then why do people run away on seeing me. Well, it is a good thing that the government has given me security. I have no problem with this, and I have been going to jail. Yes, after independence, there is no such opportunity after independence.
After this he came home and said to his mother, “Bahu, I feel that I will be arrested, and if this happens, then you go to Madhav (my father, late Madhusudan Bajpai) with the children.” On this, the mother said, “Look Dada, if I were with him in Kanpur, it was a different thing, but I am here with you, whatever will happen will be faced again. I will stay here with the children.”
Time passed. Baba was not arrested, but in 1976, when I was enrolled in class 6 in the Sanatan Dharma Higher Secondary School of Kankhal, it came in a conversation between my fellow children that there is an emergency at this time, and if anyone criticizes the government, he will be arrested. Hearing this, we said, “What is the matter in this? Where will you be arrested on speaking?” We said, “Well, let’s stand in Kankhal Chowk today and raise slogans against Indira Gandhi, see who arrests!” We four-five children left school and reached Kankhal Chowk intersection and where there was flag hoisting, raised slogans of Indira Gandhi Murdabad, Sanjay Gandhi Murdabad four to five times. By the time the policemen used to understand something and get up to us, we ran away from there. At that time it was not known that a complaint would be made at home too. In a while, this matter reached Dad and Baba, and after that a class was fiercely taken in the house and said “You are sent to study or to do Netagiri?” This experience of emergency was also memorable for me.