UNFOLDING THE UNLIT CHAPTER OF INDIA: JP MOVEMENT

In 1973 when the whole world was suffering from the oil crisis, India was also among one of the many countries facing the repercussions of the rising prices. The country’s economy was in a dire state with increasing poverty and unemployment. With this going on, came the Gujarat riots, also known as Nava Nirman Andolan. It was a socio-political movement which was initiated by some students of a college in Gujarat as a protest against the increased hostel fees and poor and unhealthy food quality. Within no time, the whole middle class of Gujarat joined the protest as an effort to combat inflation and the rising corruption in public life. This ultimately led to the resignation of the Gujarat government.

Jayaprakash Movement 

As the Gujarat riots resulted in coerced resignation of the Gujarat government; a similar student protest, which came to be known as the JP movement, began in Bihar. The opposition parties gave their full support to the movement and even announced a statewide strike from 1973. As a result of owing to their involvement in the Bihar movement, 8 students were killed in police firing in Bhopal. The government was not able to handle the situation properly and this incident provoked the protestors. On 18 February 1974, students union of Patna University invited student leaders from different states for a meeting.  They came together to form a Bihar Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti (BCSS) to spearhead the agitation. Lalu Prasad Yadav was elected as the president of this committee. Sushil Kumar Modi, Ram Vilas Paswan, Basisth Narayan Singh were among the many contemporary youth leaders who were a part of this. The demands were to improve the education system in India as well as to improve the quality and taste of food in hostels. 

During a budget session on 18 March 1974, the BCSS decided to ‘gherao’ the assembly. They blocked each and every road to the assembly and dented government properties. The chief minister convinced the students that he would look into the matter, but still, the protests and the damaging of government property continued. In order to suppress the protests, the police opened fire. As a result of which, few protestors were killed, thus angering and provoking the students across the whole country. It eventually became a national level movement, people from different states started supporting the cause; it was not only bounded to students now. Jayaprakash Narayan emerged as a very important and powerful leader during this movement. He was earlier a part of national congress but after independence, he left it as he was not in support of the new polices. He decided to lead the movement. He demanded the dissolution of the state assembly and the government resignation due to the prevailing inflation, unemployment, economic crisis in the state at that time.  

In May 1974, the biggest railway strike in the history of India took place. More than 70% of the railway workers participated. It was a fight against the low wages, harsh working conditions and long working hours. The strike was brutally suppressed by the government with thousands being sent to jail and losing their jobs. This led to more aggression amongst the people and more and more people started joining the JP movement.

On 5^th June 1974, Jayaprakash organized a rally at Gandhi Maidan in Patna to achieve total revolution. He expressed his concerns about the lack of freedom of speech and the increasing economic crisis in the country. He wanted a social transformation by the participation of youth in social activities. Students in various colleges boycotted their exams to show support to the movement. The government was trying its best to suppress the movement and even lathi-charged a lot of protestors. In November, Jayaprakash met Indira Gandhi and demanded to remove the Bihar government. Unlike in Gujarat, Indira Gandhi did not cave in and kept Bihar’s chief minister in position. Then the movement took a turn and demanded the resignation of the central government and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Soon after this Jayaprakash realized the importance of fighting within the democratic system, and formed a party known as Janta party in coalition with the opposition parties. 

State of Uttar Pradesh VS Raj Narain 

While Indira Gandhi was facing the JP protests, in June 1975 came a verdict on the state VS Raj Narain case in which Indira Gandhi was directly involved. This was related to the petition filled in 1971 by Raj Narain alleging that Gandhi used bribery, government machinery and resources to gain an unfair advantage contesting the election. The court found Indira guilty on charges such as misusing government machinery, availing her of the services of a government officer and use of electricity from the state electricity department. Serious charges such as bribing voters and election malpractices were removed. The court declared her elections null and void, unseated her from her seat in the Lok Sabha and banned her from contesting any election for an additional 6 years. Indira challenged the high court’s decision and went to the Supreme Court. 

On June 24 1975, the Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the high court. It ordered all privileges Gandhi received as a Minister of Parliament to be stopped and that she be debarred from voting. However, she was allowed to continue as the prime minister, pending the complete resolution of her appeal. 

Emergency: The Other Side of the Coin

Indira was not only facing the court pressure but there was a lot of moral pressure too. The JP protest was gaining more and more support and people were forcing Indira to resign.  In July a rally was organized in Delhi to coerce Indira Gandhi to resign. Jayaprakash gave a speech to persuade the police to reject the government’s order based on moral and ethical grounds. He legitimized the actions of the protestors and defended them. This alarmed Indira Gandhi. In the face of massive political opposition, desertion and disorder across the country and party, Gandhi stuck to the advice of a few loyalists and her younger son Sanjay Gandhi, to impose an “internal emergency”. After a quick question regarding the procedural matter, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declared emergency upon the prime minister’s advice on the midnight of June 25, 1975. 

Gandhi asserted that the emergency was proclaimed because there was an internal disturbance in the country which was a threat to the security of India. After the drought, war and oil crisis of 1973, the economy of the country was already in a very bad position. The government claimed that the strikes and protests had paralyzed the government and further destroyed the economy of the country greatly.

 Since the prime minister got the president to issue ‘ordinances’ – a law-making power in times of urgency, invoked sparingly; completely bypassing the parliament, it gave her the power to rule by decree. She now had the right to make her own rules without any approval from parliament. 

Some harsh measures were taken during the emergency. Leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Advani, Ashoka, and Vajpayee were arrested and were put behind bars. Anyone who opposed the decisions of the government was jailed. Almost all the leaders of the opposition parties were punished and put in detention. Political detainees were tortured. There was a purge in the country. Not only the political leaders but common people were also a part of this suffering. The fire was opened on slum dwellers in Delhi to suppress a movement which was initiated against the prime minister. Forced sterilization campaigns were introduced.

Press censorship was imposed. A student from Kerala was put behind bars for publishing an article against the government. He was tortured and eventually died in jail. All the fundamental rights, including article 20 and 21 were suspended. Numerous laws and ordinances were rewritten. The judiciary was subverted by the fear of incarceration. There was no freedom of speech and democracy in the country. Indira Gandhi herself claimed in an interview that things went out of control once the emergency was announced.  Due to a lot of international and national pressure, after more than a year, in March 1977, the emergency was finally revoked.  Soon after this, the general elections were held and Congress lost to Janta party, for the very first time in the history of India. 

Despite everything that took place from 1975 to 1977, Janta party was dissolved and Indira Gandhi rose to power yet again in 1980. 

Conclusion 

This whole incident showcases the power that the people hold in a democratic nation, where their movements and protests alone led to the dissolution of the ruling party.            

At the same time this whole incident highlighted the irony of the situation where despite their eventual success, the people had no other option than to re-elect the government they fought against. It may be because of the lack of leadership and the strong political hold that the Congress government had at that point in time. Perhaps it’s time we ponder upon on how these series of events shaped the Indian politics and the constitution as we know it today.

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Shreya Modgil

Shreya is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in economics from Gargi College, Delhi University. She is an avid reader and has a keen interest in history and socio-political scenarios.

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