Indira Gandhi was not aware of Emergency provisions: Pranab Mukherjee - Livemint

A file photo of President Pranab Mukherjee. Photo: Bloomberg

New Delhi: The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was not aware of the Constitutional provisions allowing for declaration of Emergency that was imposed in 1975 and it was Siddartha Shankar Ray who led her into the decision, says President Pranab Mukherjee.

Ironically, it was Ray, then chief minister of West Bengal, who also took a sharp about-turn on the authorship of the Emergency before the Shah Commission that went into "excesses" during that period, according to Mukherjee. These details are revealed by the President in his book "The Dramatic Decade: the Indira Gandhi Years" that has just been released.

"It is believed that Siddartha Shankar Ray played an important role in the decision to declare the Emergency: It was his suggestion, and Indira Gandhi acted on it. In fact, Indira Gandhi told me subsequently that she was not even aware of the Constitutional provisions allowing for the declaration of a state of Emergency on grounds of internal disturbance, particularly since a state of Emergency had already been proclaimed as a consequence of the Indo-Pak conflict in 1971," says Mukherjee in the book.

Interestingly, though not surprisingly, once it was declared, there were a whole host of people claiming authorship of idea of declaring the Emergency. And, again not surprisingly, these very people took a sharp about-turn before the Shah Commission. "Not only did they disown their involvement, they pinned all the blame on Indira Gandhi pleading their own innocence. Siddartha babu was no exception.

Deposing before the Shah Commission, he ran into Indira Gandhi—draped in a crimson sari that day—in the Commission hall and tossed a sprightly remark: 'You look pretty today'. 'Despite your efforts,' retorted a curt Indira Gandhi, says Mukherjee in his 321-page book that covers various chapters including the liberation of Bangladesh, JP's offensive, the defeat in the 1977 elections, split in Congress and return to power in 1980 and after.

The 1975 Emergency was perhaps an "avoidable event" and Congress and Indira Gandhi had to pay a heavy price for this "misadventure" as suspension of fundamental rights and political activity, large scale arrests and press censorship adversely affected people, says Mukherjee.

A junior minister under Gandhi in those turbulent times, Mukherjee however, is also unsparing of the opposition then under the leadership of the late Jayaprakash Narayan, JP, whose movement appeared to him to be "directionless".

Mukherjee, who celebrated his 79th birthday on Thursday, says, "The Dramatic Decade is the first of a trilogy; this book covers the period between 1969 and 1980...I intent to deal with the period between 1980 and 1998 in volume II, and the period between 1998 and 2012, which marked the end of my active political career, in volume III."

"At this point in the book, it will be sufficient to say here that many of us who were part of the Union Cabinet at that time (I was a junior minister) did not then understand its deep and far reaching impact."

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