By Rajan Narayan

IT is not widely known that Sashikala Kakodkar, the Maharashtra Gomantak Party chief minister in 1975, actively supported the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi. Sashikala was the only non-Congress chief minister who supported the national Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi. Indira declared an Emergency after her election to the Lok Sabha from the Raebareli constituency was set aside by the High Court.
Her Socialist party rival Raj Narain had filed a petition insisting that she had won her seat through corrupt practices. The conviction and the disqualification of Indira Gandhi led her to declare an Emergency to continue as prime minister. It is believed that she was instigated by her younger son Sanjay Gandhi. The then president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed the Emergency proclamation without the cabinet even approving the same.
Overnight all the Opposition leaders cutting across political parties were arrested in a midnight swoop. The leaders arrested included dissenting Congress leaders like Morarji Desai and Jagjivan Ram, senior BJP leaders like the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, and Socialist leaders Madhu Dandavate and George Fernandes.
IN Goa where Sashikala Kakodkar implemented the Emergency directives, Ramakant Khalap, the former Union law minister was among the first to be arrested. Sashikala had a personal agenda as Ramakant Khalap rival was the MGP. Among the other prominent Goan leaders who were arrested were Udhay Bhembre, who was a prominent journalist and lawyer, and Shri Nirmonkar, a trade union leader.
In keeping with the Emergency regime all dissent was silenced. As in the rest of the country, Sashikala also imposed censorship over the media. Sashikala also tried to implement Sanjay Gandhi’s policy of nasbandhi. This involved forcible sterilization of even young unmarried men to control the population.
Sanjay Gandhi held family planning camps all over the country for mass sterilization. This provoked a revolt all over the country. During the Emergency, there was also mindless demolition of slum colonies all over the country including Goa. Sashikala paid the price for supporting the Emergency regime of the late Indira Gandhi.
When Indira Gandhi withdrew the Emergency after 18 months, the MGP under Sashikala was rejected by the voters of Sashikala. The Congress party in Goa led by Dr Wilfred Dsouza had switched its loyalty to the breakaway Congress (O) led by Congress leaders who had opposed the emergency.

JANATA WAVE
INTERESTINGLY, it was the Congress (O) that came to power in the post-Emergency elections. The Janata wave in the post-Emergency elections also saw the election of Ferdino Rebello on the Janata ticket from the Cuncolim constituency. Ferdino Rebello went on to become chief justice of the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh. Ferdino Rebello recently addressed a meeting of the president and past MLAs of Goa.
I was then in Bombay, now Mumbai, and had just joined a fortnightly magazine called Onlooker just a month before the Emergency was declared. Our cover story for the fortnight before the emergency was “Is it the end of Indira gandhi?” There were huge hoardings outside Churchgate railway terminal in Mumbai where the cover of the Onlooker magazine was displayed. On the day when an Emergency was declared on June 25, 1975 I saw some policemen trying to scrape the offensive heading from the hoarding. When I reached the office a censor officer was already there.
It was made clear to the editor of the Onlooker Masih Rahman that all matters should be cleared by the official censor. No reports critical of the Emergency or Indira Gandhi or Sanjay Gandhi would be permitted. Even the arrest of senior journalists and political leaders could not be reported. On the day of the Emergency, the only newspaper that protested with the blank editorial page, was the Indian Express. The owner of the Indian Express, Ramnath Goenka, was forced to hand over control of the group to government-appointed directors. The editor-in-chief S Mulgaokar was sacked and replaced with VK Narasimhan. Narsimhan continued to maintain the independent stand of the Indian Express.
George Fernandes one of the leaders in the Jayprakash Narayan movement against Indira Gandhi was treated very badly by Indira Gandhi. George went underground and could not be traced for several months. Indira Gandhi was very angry with him because he had led the All-India strike of the railway unions and had brought the country to a halt.

MANY ARRESTS
GEORGE Fernandes was implicated in a case of being in possession of explosives to carry out a bomb blast and was taken in chains to Delhi. It is not just politicians and journalists who were arrested and tortured during the Emergency. Left activists from Bombay University like Vasanti Raman were arrested and kept with leprosy patients in filthy jail conditions. Several senior bureaucrats also protested against the excesses of the Emergency including PN Haksar. Haksar resigned and protested against the goondagiri of Sanjay Gandhi. Haksar’s daughter Nandita Haksar recalls the savagery of the Emergency regime of Indira Gandhi
The controversial film on the Emergency – “Emergency” — produced and directed by Kangana Ranaut, is scheduled to be released on January 17, 2025 although earlier scheduled to be released in September 2024. Objections were raised by the Congress party about the manner in which Indira Gandhi is depicted.
Incidentally, Kangana Ranaut plays the role of Indira Gandhi in the film. It is not a very flattering role as Kangana is a strong supporter of the BJP. Kangana was elected to parliament in BJP ticket in the 2024 election. Among the leading actors in the film are Anupam Kher as Jayprakash Narayan and Shreyas Talpade as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the late Satish Kaushik as Jagjivan Ram, Vishak Nair as Sanjay Gandhi. The film reportedly projects Vajpayee as the hero who forced Indira Gandhi to lift the Emergency.
The truth is that it was Jayprakash Narayan who led the revolt against Indira Gandhi. I recall that Jayprakash Narayan used to stay in the penthouse of the Express towers as the guest of Ramnath Goenka. I recall that All India Radio had put out false news that Jayprakash Narayan had died. When we went up to the penthouse on the first floor where the office of Indian Express is located we found out that he was very much alive.

BLACK SPOT RETURNS
THE Emergency is no doubt a black spot in the democratic history of India and Goa. However, the coming to power of BJP at the Center and in many states also affected the freedom of the media. To the extent that independent media is totally dead in the country, with rare exceptions. Even at its worst Indira Gandhi was never communal. Narendra Modi’s rise to power has witnessed the division of India along communal lines. Muslims are being increasingly targeted along with the Catholic minority community in covert and overt manner.
Perhaps we need another JP movement to restore liberal democracy in India. It would appear that not just India but the world is turning right. We are on the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States second term around. Donald Trump like other right-wing leaders has started a war against migrants on the claim of “Making America Great Again.” What would USA be without migrants?