Emergency 1975-77

Story hook

It is midnight, 25 June 1975. At the Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signs a one-page proclamation: "In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 352 of the Constitution, I, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, President of India, declare that a grave emergency exists whereby the security of India is threatened by internal disturbance." He had not been informed in advance; PM Indira Gandhi's emissary handed him the draft after Cabinet approval. The President signed without consulting his Cabinet — a constitutional first that critics would later cite as proof of presidential capitulation.

By dawn, electricity to newspaper presses on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Delhi has been cut. By 6 am, **Jayaprakash Narayan

• Morarji Desai + L K Advani + Atal Bihari Vajpayee + Charan Singh + Raj Narain** are arrested. MISA + DIR allow detention without trial. Fundamental Rights under Articles 14, 19, 21, 22 are suspended. The press is censored under the Censorship Order, 26 June 1975 — pre-publication clearance required for every column inch.

For the next 21 months (25 June 1975 - 21 March 1977) India ceases to be a working democracy. By the time fresh elections are called on 18 January 1977, Sanjay Gandhi's forced sterilisation drive (over 6.2 million), the Turkman Gate demolitions, the 42nd Constitutional Amendment, and a brutalised civil liberties record have alienated even Congress's core base. On 24 March 1977, Morarji Desai is sworn in as India's first non-Congress PM.

Sixteen years and four governments later, on 24 July 1991, another midnight moment: Finance Minister Manmohan Singh will rise in Parliament to deliver a Budget speech that quotes Victor Hugo — "No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come." India's 1991 Economic Liberalisation will end 38 years of Nehruvian planning. Between Emergency + Mandal + Mandir + Liberalisation, the political-economic-social skeleton of contemporary India is forged.

Why this matters for UPSC

For UPSC:

• Prelims: dates + amendments + commissions are perennial favourites (42nd + 44th Amendment, Mandal Commission, V P Singh's role, Rao + Manmohan Singh's reforms). 3-4 questions per cycle.
• Mains GS-I + GS-II: Emergency as turning point in Indian democracy; Mandal-Mandir as twin axes of post-1990 identity politics; 1991 reforms.
• Interview: civil liberties, Sankalp commitments, judicial review of Emergency-era detentions, mandalisation of polity.