RSS & EMERGENCY
The RSS and its flock in the BJP have no locus standi to make noises about the Emergency. Its own leaders grovelled before the Congress dispensation to win reprieves from jail terms and have the ban lifted on their organisation.
EA.G. NOORANI
VERY year on the anniversary of the Emergency, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and its foot soldiers, especially those in its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), go to town denouncing sin. It boasts of the “sacrifices” made by it and its political front, the Jana Sangh, ancestor of the BJP, during the Emergency.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s imposition of the Emergency was no mere mistake; it was a sin, a constitutional crime committed for purely personal reasons, namely, to nullify the judgment of the Allahabad High Court on June 12, 1975, declaring her election to the Lok Sabha to be void. She put her political opponents behind bars; imposed press censorship; suspended the fundamental rights; extended the life of the Lok Sabha; rushed through Parliament the 42nd Constitutional amendment to undermine our democracy; attempted to give herself immunity from criminal proceedings; nullified the High Court judgment; and even made serious moves to discard the Constitution itself by convening a Constituent Assembly to establish a presidential system.
But, in his correspondence with Indira Gandhi during the Emergency, the RSS boss, M.D. Deoras, never criticised those sordid moves or called for a return to the democratic order. Instead, on his advice and instructions, his men from the RSS gave unconditional undertakings to get out of prison.
The government prepared a standard form, which RSS detenus happily signed. Some of them did not wait for the form. They gave unqualified undertakings in their own language, if only to get out.
The Government’s printed draft read thus: “PRO-FORMA OF UNDERTAKING
I, Shri ...................... Detenu Class I ................. prisoner