Our Correspondent / New Delhi
Today is the 43rd anniversary of the Emergency. Emergency, which is known as black period of Indian democracy was imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the midnight of June 25th, 1975. Civil liberties were suspended and lakhs of people were put behind the bar across the country. Media was also censored.
In her address to the nation, Mrs. Gandhi said the president has proclaimed national emergency. The days before the imposition of emergency, Mrs Gandhi’s election was declared null and void by Allahabad High Court on a petition by socialist leader Raj Narain and she was unseated from her Lok Sabha seat. The court also banned her from contesting in any election for next six years.
Mr Narain who was defeated by Indira Gandhi in the Rae Bareilly parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh had challenged her election on charges of corruption in the election process.
Socialist Jayaprakash Narayan had been organizing campaign in Bihar to oust Indira Gandhi and her Congress party from office.
On the evening of June 25th 1975, Jay Prakash Narayan called for a civil disobedience campaign to force the resignation of Mrs Gandhi.
In response, the authority of the maintenance of Internal Security Act MISA was used in the early hours of 26th June and an era of repression of political opponents began which continued till early part of 1977 when the fresh elections for Lok Sabha was announced.