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Political Background

Congress and the Rise of Indira Gandhi Allahabad Conviction Declaration of Emergency

Indira Gandhi

Congress and the Rise of Indira Gandhi

The Congress Party of India has been historically associated with the political

system of India. It arose as a budding independence movement in 1885 and was leadby Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru. The congress partyheld power in New Delhi and in 22 states from 1947. The party maintained its

dominance through five general elections since 1951-1952. In 1966 after the deathof Lal Bahdur Shastri, Indira Gandhi who was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, wasselected as the President of the Indian National Congress Party. She proved her

leadership in the role she played in the 1965 war with Pakistan, which led to the birth

of Bangladesh in East Bengal. In 1966 Gandhi beat Moraji Desai by 355 votes to169 and become the fifth Prime Minister of India and the first woman to hold that

position.

Allahabad Conviction

Raj Narain, a socialist who was recently defeated by Indira Gandhi (two toone) in the Rae Bareilly parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh,

submitted to the Allahabad High Court charges of corruption in theelection process against Mrs. Gandhi. In 1974, Jayaprakash Narayan, ex-

congressman, ex-socialist began to organize a campaign in Bihar to oustIndira Gandhi and her congress party from office on charges of corruption.

On June 12th, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High

Court, found the Prime Minister guilty on the charge of misuse ofgovernment machinery for her election campaign. The court declared her

election "null and void" and unseated her from the Lok Sabha. The courtalso banned her from contesting in any election for an additional six years.Some serious charges such as bribing voters and election malpracticeswere dropped and she was held guilty on comparatively less importantcharges such as building of a dais by state police and provision of

electricity by the state electricity department and height of the dais fromwhich she addressed the campaign rally. Some of these charges were inreality an essential part for the Prime Minister's Security protocol. In

addition, she was held responsible for misusing the government machineryas a government employee. Because the court unseated her oncomparatively lesser charges, while being acquitted on more seriouscharges, The Times of India described it as "firing the Prime Minister for

a traffic ticket." Strikes by labour and trade unions, student unions andgovernment unions swept across the country. Protests led by Raj Narayanand Moraji Desai flooded the streets of Delhi close to the Parliament

building and the Prime Minister's residence.

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Allahabad High Court

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Front page of the Indian Herald on June 26th 1975

Declaration of Emergency

Justice Sinha stayed the operation of his judgment for 20 days allowing theCongress party to elect a successor to the Prime Minister. Unable to find a

competent successor, Mrs. Gandhi, on June 23rd 1975 appealed forcomplete and absolute stay which would have permitted her to be a votingMember of Parliament, as well as Prime Minister. On June 24th 1975Justice Iyer granted Indira Gandhi conditional stay. This decision gave

rise to outcries of opposition from the opposition that she should resign. Mrs.Gandhi did not resign. On the evening of June 25th 1975, JP Narayan calledfor a civil disobedience campaign to force the resignation of the Prime

Minister. In response, the authority of the maintenance of Internal SecurityAct was used in the early hours of June 26th to arrest more than a hundredpeople who opposed Mrs. Gandhi and her party. People arrested included JPNarayan, Raj Narain, Jyortimoy Basu (communist party-marxist), Samar

Guha (president of the Jana Sangha). A proclamation of Emergency wasissued on June 26th by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, on the advice ofPrime Minister Gandhi. The authority for calling the emergency was underArticle 352 of the Indian Constitution. Sunch an emergency can be called by

the President whenever he is satisfied that the security of India, or any partof it has been threatened by war, external agression, or internal disturbance. The actual occurrence of a disturbance is not necessary, only expected the

occurrence of a disturbance. Furthermore, under Article 352, the Courts maynot inquire into the validity of the grounds upon which emergency was called. The powers given to the Central Government under this form of emergency

virtually have no limits.

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