22 March, 1977: End of Indira Gandhi's Dictatorship

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22 March 1977, a day when the democratic people of India ousted a brutal dictator from her throne. A day when the country once again saw the light of freedom after removing the dark shadow of 21 months. A day when the Nehru-Gandhi family's intention to rule India for life got a setback. A day when Indira's ego was crushed by Indian democracy. March 22, 1977 was the same day when the results of the post-Emergency elections were declared and Indira Gandhi was badly defeated.

The entire country was troubled by the way Indira Gandhi carried out her dictatorial activities by eliminating civil liberties during the National Emergency. Due to Emergency, Indira Gandhi was being opposed from all sides and its results were clearly seen in the election results. For the first time after the Emergency imposed on the night of 25 June 1975, elections were announced on 23 January 1977. After this, political prisoners who were victims of Indira Gandhi's dictatorship were released.

In the 1977 elections, Jan Sangh, Congress (O), Bharatiya Lok Dal and Samajwadi Party together formed the Janata Party and contested the elections primarily to counter the Congress. Emergency was the biggest issue in the election rallies and as a result the Janata Party won the election. During this period, the loudest slogan was "Will it be democracy or dictatorship", this slogan seemed to have united the entire country against Indira Gandhi. On the other hand, many leaders of the Congress Party and those close to Indira Gandhi were also leaving the party.

The Congress party had to face defeat in the elections for the first time. The Janata Party won 298 seats and was led by Morarji Desai as Prime Minister. It is an interesting thing that Morarji Desai was released from jail just two months before the elections. Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi were defeated. Indira Gandhi submitted her resignation on 22 March. The special thing about this election was that the Congress Party did not get a single seat in 5 states (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab).

The Emergency

Emergency was imposed in the entire country under Article 352 with the signature of the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on the midnight of 25–26 June (1975). The next morning the whole country heard this decision in the voice of Indira Gandhi. With the declaration of emergency, all the fundamental rights of the general public were taken away. People no longer had the right to life, including the right to any kind of freedom of expression.

A complete ban was imposed on the general public, media groups, radio, and other means of communication. Since the announcement of emergency, the search and arrest of opposition leaders had started in the country. Big leaders of that time, Morarji Desai, Jayaprakash Narayan, Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, George Fernandes were put in jail.

Along with the opposition leaders, all the people with ideologies contrary to Indira Gandhi who had influence in the society and innocent people among the general public were also put in jail. There was no space left in jails. About 1,40,000 people were made political prisoners without any trial during the Emergency. Everything was done only to maintain the dictatorship of Nehru-Gandhi family.

After the Emergency, incidents of heavy harassment by the administration and police came to light. Many incidents were completely suppressed by government representatives. Some incidents that came out also could not reach the people due to all kinds of publicity censorship. Censorship was also imposed on press media. Censor officers were deployed in every newspaper. The circumstances were such that any news could be published only after the permission of that Congress-backed officer. Arrests were being made without any trial for publishing anti-government news.

The Beginning

After the mysterious death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent in 1966, Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi was imposed as the next Prime Minister of the country. The then Congress leader K. Kamaraj created a maze to make Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister. But the biggest game had already been played by Indira Gandhi.

Kamaraj and other senior Congress leaders had done this with the idea of making Indira Gandhi a puppet Prime Minister, but as soon as she became the Prime Minister, Indira started ignoring the words of these Congress leaders. Due to the internal affairs of the party as well as the attitude of the government, the conflict between the government and the judiciary also started during this period.

By 1971, Indira Gandhi had become a powerful leader. Any leader would have looked small in front of Indira Gandhi's political stature. Indira Gandhi knew and understood this very well. General elections were held in 1971. Indira Gandhi brought unprecedented success to Congress. Indira Gandhi's own victory margin from Rae Bareli seat was also quite big. But Indira's election rival and Samyukta Socialist Party candidate Rajnarayan alleged election rigging. The allegation was not just verbal but Rajnarayan even went to court for this.

Rajnarayan wrote in his charge sheet that "Indira Gandhi has won the election by using unfair means. Indira Gandhi has misused government resources to win the election." When the hearing on this allegation started, the whole country was curious to know the news related to it. Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha, who was hearing this case in Allahabad High Court, had asked Indira Gandhi to appear in the court on 18 March 1975.

This was the first time in the political history not only of India but of the world when a sitting Prime Minister had to appear in the court.

Congress organized a huge rally on 20 June 1975 and in this rally, Congress leader Devkant Barua had said "Indira, your morning's glory, your evening's glory, your work's glory, your name's glory" and in the same public meeting he During the speech, Indira Gandhi announced that she would not resign from the post of Prime Minister.

Senior leader Jayaprakash Narayan had said in front of a huge crowd at Ramlila Maidan on 25 June 1975 that "All the opposition parties should unite for the interest of the country, otherwise dictatorship will be established here and the people will become unhappy."

An attempt was also made by Justice Mathur, Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, to influence Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha. Despite this, Justice Sinha found Indira Gandhi guilty in his decision. After this, Indira Gandhi was banned from contesting any kind of election for 6 years. Indira Gandhi reached the Supreme Court against this decision. The Supreme Court partially stayed this decision. After which, on June 25, Jayaprakash Narayan started the movement on a large scale. After the court's decision and the movement that put pressure on Indira Gandhi to resign, Indira's arrogance came to the fore before the world. Seeing her defeat, Indira Gandhi misused her position and imposed emergency in the country on the midnight of 25-26 June.