“Ek desh men do vidhan, do pradhan, do nishan, nahin challenge! “

From a purely historical point of view the month of June is very important. For us in the BJP there are several dates which are unforgettable.

I am writing this blog on June 25. It was on this date in 1975 that Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi made President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed sign a Proclamation under Art. 352 of the Constitution declaring an internal Emergency. The Prime Minister had not consulted the Cabinet. The Home Minister and the Law Minister also were unaware of this move.

June 12 of the same year 1975 was the date on which the Allahabad High Court struck down the election of Smt. Indira Gandhi to the Lok Sabha and disqualified her from being a member of Parliament for six years on grounds of electoral corruption.

The Proclamation of Emergency which the Rashtrapati was made to sign was intended to arm the Government with powers which could enable her to undo the consequences of the High Court verdict.

The Proclamation of Emergency was presented to the Cabinet on June 26 at 6.00 A.M.

Two hours later at 8.00 A.M. the Prime Minister herself informed the people on radio that an Emergency had been imposed on the country.

After the signing of the Proclamation the previous night, Fundamental Rights had been suspended, strict censorship had been imposed on the media, and a massive operation under Maintenance of the Internal Security Act of arrests and detentions had been launched. All over the country, thousands of eminent leaders, members of Parliament, Members of State Legislatures, Journalists and other activists opposed to the Emergency and demanding that Smt. Gandhi resign because of the High Court verdict were put behind bars.

Among those arrested that night, or the following day, were Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain, Morarji Bhai Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chandra Shekhar.

The country these days is agitated over the issues of corruption, of numerous scams involving the Central Government, and black money stashed in overseas banks. But we in the BJP can never forget that we commenced our political yatra in 1951 under the leadership of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerji, and the first national movement that we launched as Jana Sangh was for the complete integration of J&K State with the Indian Union. Dr. Mookerji led the movement from the front, defied the permit system, and was detained by the State Government. On June 23, 1953 he died in mysterious circumstances, a martyr for the cause of Jammu-Kashmir’s Integration.

Two days back, on June 23rd  fell Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji’s 58th Martyrdom Day.  The Delhi unit of the BJP organized a Syama Prasad Balidan Divas at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium that day. Not only was the huge stadium completely jampacked, but many more thousands had assembled in the lawns outside, where several screens and loud speakers had been put up to enable them to listen to the speeches inside.

In 1952, the first General Elections were held. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s first National Convention was held early in 1953 at Kanpur. I remember how inspired all of us who participated in that convention felt when Dr. Mookerji gave the conclave the resounding slogan : Ek desh men do vidhan, do pradhan, do nishan, nahin challenge!

L.K. Advani
New Delhi
25 June, 2011

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