The Crisis of Democratic Order

Class 12 Political Science

1. Who started total revolution? 

Ans:- Prakash Narayan

2. Define

(i) Emergency

(ii) Preventive Detention

(iii) Press Censorship

Ans:- (i) Emergency:- It is an extraordinary condition in which normal democratic politics can not function and special powers are granted to the government.

(ii) Preventive Detention:- It is provision under which people are arrested any offence but on the apprehension that they may commit an offence.

(iii) Press Censorship:- This term states suspension of the freedom for press. In this newspapers were asked to get prior approval for all material to be published.

3. Throw light on the background for the imposition of Emergency.

Ans:- Emergency was imposed under the situation and circumstances which was characterized by the following features such as:

(i) Indira Gandhi emerged as a towering leader with tremendous popularity.

(ii) Party competition became bitter and polarised.

(iii) Conflict between the government and the judiciary.

(iv) Power politics became too personalised and governmental authority was being converted into personal authority. 

4. Write a note on railway strike of 1974.

Ans:- Railway strike of 1974 was called by the ‘National coordination committee’ for Railwaymenss struggle led by George Fernandez for pressing their demands related to bonus and service conditions.

    The government was supposed to these demand. The strike by the railway employees added to atmosphere of labour unrest. It is  also raised issue like rights of the worker.

(iii) The government declared the strike illegal and arrested many of their leaders and deployed it the territorial army to protect railway tracks. Thus, strike was called off after 20 days without any settlement.

5. Who organised the first nationwide Satyagraha and why? 

Ans:- The first nationwide Satyagraha was organised by Jaiprakash Narayan for Indira Gandhi’s resignation. He asked the army, the police and government employees not to obey “illegal immoral orders.” 

(i) Jayaprakash Narayan organized a massive demonstration in Delhi’s Ramlila ground on 25th June 1975. 

(ii) All these threatened to bring the activities of the government to a standstill and changed the political smooth of the country against the congress.

6. Why and on what ground emergency was declared by the congress government? 

Ans:- The congress government declared an emergency in response to Jayaprakash Narayan’s nationwide Satyagaha for resignation of Indira Gandhi. Observing the situation the government decided that a grave crisis had arisen which made the proclamation of a state of emergency necessary.

Thus, on 25th June 1975, the government declared that there was threat of internal disturbance and therefore it invoked article 352 of the constitution. Under the provision of this article the government could declare a state of emergency on rounds of external threat or a threat of internal disturbance.

7. List the implications of emergency.

Ans:- Implication of emergency-

Once an emergency is proclaimed the federal distribution of power remain practically suspended and all powers are concentrated in the hands of the union government.

(ii) secondly, the government also gets the power to curtail or restrict all or any of the fundamental rights during the emergency.

8. What were the reasons which led to the mid term election in 1980?

Ans:- After the year 1977 General Elections the Janata Party government came into power. But from the very beginning there was stiff competition among three leaders for the post of prime minister i.e. Morari Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram. Eventually Morarji Desai became the prime minister, but that did not bring the power struggles within the party to an end and ultimately led to the mid-term election in 1980. Some valid reasons for the mid term election were as follows:

(i) Actualy the opposition to emergency could keep the Janata Party together only for a while. Janata party lacked direction, leadership and a common programme.

(ii) Another reason was that the Janata party government could not bring about a fundamental change in policies from those pursued  by the congress.

(iii) Thirdly there was split in the Janata Party and the government which was led by Morarji Desai lost its majority in less than 18 months.

Another government headed by Charan Sing was formed on the assurance of the support of the congress party. But congress party later decided to withdraw its support with the result that Charan Singh government resigned just after four months.

All these reasons led to the mid-term election of 1980. 

Hence, fresh Lok Sabha elections were held in January 1980 in which the Janata party suffered a comprehensive defeat. Congress party led by Indira Gandhi came back to power by winning 353 seats. 

9. The Shah commission was appointed 1977 by the Janata Party government. Why was it appointed and what were its findings.

Ans:- The Shah commission was appointed in May 1977 by the Janata Party government. It was a commission of inquiry headed by Justice J.C. Shah, retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India to inquire into:

(i) Several aspects of allegation of abuse of authority, excesses and malpractices committed and action taken in the wakes of emergency, proclaimed on 25th June 1975.

(ii) The Commission examined various kinds of evidences and called scores of witnesses to give testimonies. This included Indira Gandhi who appeared before the commission but refused to answer any questions.

Finding of Shah Commission:-

The findings of Shah Commission in the form of reports were tabled in the two houses of parliament.

(i) The investigations by Shah Commission after the Emergency found out that there were many ‘excesses’ committed during the emergency.

(ii) It estimated that nearly one lakh eleven thousand people were arrested under the preventive detention laws.

(iii) Several restrictions were put on the press sometimes without proper legal sanctions.

(iv) The Shah commission report also mentions that the general manager of the Delhi power supply corporation received verbal order from the offices of the Lt. Governor of Delhi to cut electricity to all newspaper presses at 2 a.m. on 26 June 1975.

9. What reasons did the government give for declaring a National emergency in 1975?

Ans:- The congress government proclaimed emergency in response to the petition filed by Raj Narain to declare Indira Gandhi election invalid. 

(i) On 25 June 1975, the government declared that there was a treat of internal disturbances and therefore it invoked Articles 352 of the constitution.

(ii) Under the provision of this article the government could declare a state of emergency on grounds of external threat or threat of internal disturbances.

(iii) However, the government decided that a grave crisis had arisen which made the proclamation of a state of emergency necessary. 

Technically speaking this was within the powers of the government, for our constitution provides for some special powers to the government once an emergency is declared. Besides, the government said that it wanted to use emergency to bring law and order, restore efficiency and above all, implement the pro-poor welfare programmes. Thus, on the night of 25 June 1975 the Prime Minister recommended the imposition of emergency to President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He issued the proclamation immediately. The cabinet was informed about it at a special meeting at 6 am on 26 June; after all this had taken place. But imposition of emergency became the most controversial episode in indian politics.

10. Discuss the lessons of the emergency.

Ans:- The emergency at once brought out both the weaknesses and the strengths of India’s democracy. Though there are many observers who think that India ceased to be democratic during the emergency. It was noteworthy that normal democratic functioning resumed within a short span of time. Hence, we learned some lessons: 

(i) The very first lesson we learnt is that it is extremely difficult to do away with democracy in India.

(ii) Secondly, it brought out some ambiguities regarding the emergency provision in the constitution that have been rectified since. Now, internal emergency can be proclaimed only on the grounds of “armed rebellion” and it is necessary that the advice to the president to proclaim emergency must be given writing by the council of ministers.

(iii) The third lesson we learnt is that the emergency made everyone more aware of the value of civil liberties. The courts too have taken an active role after the emergency in protecting the civil liberties of the individual. This is a response to the inability of the judiciary to protect civil liberties effectively during the emergency.

11. Discus the conflict between the judiciary, executive and legislature before the declaration of emergency.

Ans:- Before declaration of emergency it was a period when the government and the ruling party had many differences with the Judiciary. ThreE constitutional issues emerged which led to a strain between judiciary, legislature (parliament) and executive.

(i) Firstly can the Parliament abridge fundamental rights? The Supreme Court said it can not.

(ii) Secondly, can the parliament curtail the ‘right to property’ by making an amendment? Again, the court said that parliament can not amend the constitution in such a manner that rights are curtailed. 

(iii) Thirdly, the parliament amended the constitution saying that it can abridge Fundamental Rights for giving effect to Directive Principles of state policy. But Supreme Court rejected this provision also.

This led to a crisis as far as the relations between the government and the judiciary were concerned. This is a very much proved in the famous Kesavananda Bharti case. In this case, the court gave a decision that there are some basic features of the constitution and parliament can not amend these features.

Besides, two more developments further added to the tension between the judiciary and the executive. Immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973 in the Keshavananda Bharti case, a vacancy arose for the post of the Chief Justice of India and the government set a side the seniority of three judges and appointed justice A. N. Ray as the Chief Justice of India. This appointment became politically controversial because all three judges who were superseded had given ruling against the stand of the government.

Another jolt came as the ruling of the High Court which declared Indira Gandhi’s Lok Sabha election invalid.

In this way, the constitutional interpretations and political ideologies were getting mixed up rapidly.

Dr. Ratanlal Brahma, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Post Graduate Teacher (Political Science)
H.N.Seminary Model HS School, Bagribari, Dhubri, Assam
Email : brahmaratan@gmail.com
Whatsapp no. : 7020477396