Indian Prime Minister and Congress leader had imposed a national emergency on the mid-night of 25-26 June, 1975 after her election as member of parliament was set aside by a Court judgement. She was disqualified and debarred from holding an elected office for six years. Instead of stepping down, she imposed national emergency and put all those in jail who were opposed to her. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) led from the front in the movement to restore democracy. According to various media reports more than hundred thousand volunteers of the RSS were put in jail including its top leadership. However, the RSS successfully ran one of the most powerful and effective underground movements against emergency, observed many foreign journalists who reported about Emergency during 1975-77 .
Here is a collection of some articles which have been written about the RSS’ role in Emergency in the past. These articles have been curated from various newspapers, magazines and on digital platforms:-
How RSS fought Indira Gandhi’s Emergency — as the foreign media saw it
When the Indira Gandhi government-imposed Emergency at midnight on 25-26 June 1975, the role of the foreign press became important in the country as most Indian newspapers and magazines became victims of ruthless censorship for the next 21 months.
To a large extent, it was left to the foreign press to highlight the pro-democracy movement that emerged to counter the draconian measures taken by the Indira Gandhi government. Interestingly, the dispatches from foreign journalists posted in Delhi repeatedly highlighted the role played by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the movement to restore democracy.
The Economist wrote on 24 January 1976, in an article titled Yes there is an Underground, “In formal terms, the underground is an alliance of four opposition parties: The Jana Sangh (the RSS’ political wing), the socialist party, the breakaway fraction of the Congress party and the Lok Dal.
“But the shock troops of the movement come largely from the Jana Sangh and its band affiliate RSS, which claim a combined membership of 10m (of whom 80,000, including 6,000 full-time party workers, are in prison).”
It further mentioned specifically that two of the top four leaders that were running the underground movement were from the RSS and the Jana Sangh. They were: Dattopant Thengadi, a senior RSS pracharak, and Dr Subramanian Swamy, who was then, as now, a member of the Rajya Sabha.
“The day-to-day activities of the movement are directed by a four-man committee which meets three times a week, sometimes in Delhi, sometimes in Bombay, Madras, or Ahmedabad and sometimes on a train in between the cities. The top man on the committee is Ravindra Verma, a former Congress member of Parliament from Kerala who is now a member of the opposition Congress. The other three are D.P. Thengadi, a trade union leader, S.M. Joshi a former socialist MP and Subramanyam Swamy (sic), a Jana Sangh member of the upper house.”
‘Dominated by Jana Sangh’
In another dispatch, as reproduced in the underground journal Satyavani on 26 June 1977, The Economist wrote: “The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to be the only non-left wing revolutionary force in the world, disavowing both bloodshed and class struggle. Indeed it might even be called right-wing since it is dominated by Jana Sangh and its banned cultural affiliate the RSS but its platform at the moment has only one non-ideological plank — to bring back democracy to India.”
It added, “The truth of this operation consists of tens of thousands of cadres who are organised down to the village level into 4-man cells. Most of them are RSS regulars… the other opposition parties which started out as partner in the underground have effectively abandoned the field to the Jana Sangh and the RSS. The function of the RSS cadre network… is mainly to spread the anti-Gandhi word. Once the ground is prepared and political consciousness raised, so the leaders are ready, any spark can set off the revolutionary Prairie fire.”
Busting propaganda
In an article titled India is as Indira Does in The New York Times Magazine on 4 April 1976, American journalist J. Anthony Lukas busted the Indira government’s propaganda against the RSS, which was banned immediately after the Emergency kicked in.
“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, commonly known as the RSS, are a tightly disciplined band of volunteers between the ages of 12 and 21, but they can hardly be called ‘troops’. Pictures of material seized from the RSS offices after the Emergency primarily show long wooden staves and wooden swords,” he wrote.
“I asked Om Mehta, a Minister of State in the Home Ministry, about this and he replied vaguely, ‘There were some metal swords too.’ Even with some metal swords, I asked, how could boys with staves pose much of a threat to a superbly equipped army of about one million men, the Border Security Force of about 85,000 the Central Reserve Police of about 57,000 and some 755,000 state policemen. ‘Well,’ Mehta said, ‘there were undoubtedly some rifles.’ ‘Did you seize any?’ I asked. ‘No,’ he said. ‘They probably kept them at home. Don’t underestimate these people’s capacity for mischief’.”
During the Emergency, many RSS workers went underground and crossed over to Nepal to evade arrest in India. The Guardian wrote in an article dated 2 August 1976, titled The Empress Reigns Supreme, “Reports from Kathmandu say that the Nepalese government has rejected appeals from the Indian police to arrest and intern members of the Indian underground.
“A source close to the Nepalese embassy said that Kathmandu will never hand over to the Indian government members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)… banned by the Gandhi regime shortly after the promulgation of the Emergency…”
Quoting the then Indian Home Minister about his views on the RSS, the same article stated, “‘The RSS continues to be active all over India,’ Brahmanand Reddy, the Indian Home Minister, said recently… ‘It has even extended its tentacles to far off Kerala in the South’.”
Commenting on the role of communists, the article added, “…Pro-CPI (Communist Party of India) journals in India are being given some latitude by the censors because the party is in favour of even stronger measures to suppress the non-communist opposition.”
The New York Times reported on 28 October 1976, “The only political parties which are supporting Congress Party of the government in the actions that it is taking are the Communist Party of India, the pro-Moscow Communist party and the Moslem League.”
All quotes from the international media outlets have been sourced from The Press She Could Not Whip: Emergency in India as reported by the Foreign Press, edited by Amiya Rao and B.G. Rao, and first published by Popular Prakashan in 1977, and The Smugglers of Truth, edited by Makarand Desai and published by The Friends of India Society International in July 1978 (it compiled articles published in Satyavani)
The article was first published on June 25, 2020, in The Print
For details click on : https://theprint.in/india/how-rss-fought-indira-gandhis-emergency-as-the-foreign-media-saw-it/448135/ )
How Narendra Modi evaded arrest for 19 months by changing his name and look during Emergency
While not many can imagine this today, a socialist leader and a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharak once met at a clandestine place with great warmth and deep concern for each other’s wellbeing, and then congratulated each other for the work they were carrying out for the ‘common cause’ of saving democracy, under extremely adverse circumstances.
The two leaders were George Fernandes and Narendra Modi and the meeting took place during the Emergency.
Fernandes, who passed away in January 2019, was known as a firebrand leader and later held important portfolios in non-Congress governments. Modi, meanwhile, became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001 and has been the Prime Minister of India since May 2014.
A detailed account of the meeting is present in a first-hand account of the Emergency, written by Modi in his first book. Titled ‘Sangarshma Gujarat’, the book is in Gujarati and was published in 1978 after the Emergency was lifted.
Then prime minister Indira Gandhi had imposed Emergency in India at midnight on 25-26 June 1975, which lasted for 19 months.
The Opposition was put in jail and the RSS, which led a movement against the Emergency, was banned. Its leaders and thousands of cadres were put into prisons.
However, several pracharaks evaded arrest and went underground to carry forward this struggle to save democracy. Modi, who was stationed in Gujarat at the time, was one of them.
Modi detailed Gujarat’s underground movement in his book and also gave interesting anecdotes about his own role.
He worked closely with leaders like Fernandes, helped provide support to the families of those arrested and played a key role in the printing and dissemination of banned literature against the government and Emergency in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
In his book, Modi mentioned that he used a pseudonym and was on the verge of being caught by the police several times, who were constantly looking for him.
He had to adorn different looks such as a saint or that of a Sikh to hide his real identity from the police and establishment.
Dramatic meeting with Fernandes
Describing his dramatic meeting with George Fernandes, who was a key leader of the underground movement at that time, Modi writes: “A yellow Fiat car stopped near the door. A person came out of it. He had a huge physique, was wearing a wrinkled kurta, had a green bandana on the head, a printed tahmat and a watch with a golden chain on the wrist. He was dressed as a Muslim mystic with a heavy beard on his face, and was called ‘Baba’”.
He added: “With this Fernandes came in. In those days it was also a joyous occasion to meet the colleagues associated with the struggle. We hugged each other and we congratulated each other for carrying forward the struggle with persistence. I shared with him the information about Gujarat and other provinces that was available with me.”
After this, Modi further noted, “I was in constant touch with Mr. George, I also got him to meet Nanaji (RSS’ senior pracharak Shri Nanaji Deshmukh).”
Nanaji was a key leader of the movement against the Emergency. He was the secretary of Lok Sangharsh Samiti, a joint forum of all those who were opposing the Emergency.
At the time, the government was trying to desperately find both Fernandes and Nanaji.
Describing the early days of the agitation, Modi wrote: “The Sangh office used to be the abode for us pracharaks. On July 4, the Sangh was banned and its offices were occupied by the government. Therefore, both me and the Sangh’s Prant (provincial) pracharak, Shri Keshavrao Deshmukh, used to stay with Shri Vasantbhai Gajendragadkar (a senior functionary).”
Underground literature
In Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, underground literature that was being distributed against the Emergency was primarily printed in Gujarat.
Elaborating on how this was done, Modi wrote: “Shri Kishanbhaiya, an underground pracharak of the Sangh, came to Ahmedabad from Rajasthan to publish literature on behalf of the Rajasthan Lok Sangharsh Samiti. …this task of getting two lakh copies of a magazine printed in Hindi and sending them to Rajasthan was quite a challenge.”
“The organisation secretary of Jana Sangh, Shri Nathabhai Jhaghda, and I started looking for a suitable press for this work. It was difficult to find such a press in Gujarat that could print such a huge amount of literature in Hindi language. ..after two days of continuous research, a press owner agreed to this work. We heaved a sigh of relief and thought that once these copies get printed, then we would decide the future course of action,” he added.
“The copies started being printed. Two lakh copies got piled up. After these copies were ready, they were carefully stocked at four different places in Ahmedabad,” Modi further wrote.
After this, two workers from every district in Rajasthan came and carried these magazines in their empty holdalls. When the printed copies were being distributed in Rajasthan, the police kept conducting raids across the state to find the press where these copies were printed.
Referring to another episode, Modi wrote about how some of the pracharaks got arrested due to these raids.
“Shri Navinbhai Bhavsar, one of our associates in the underground movement got arrested. Police raided Mr. Navinbhai’s house as soon as some important letters related to the underground struggle arrived by post. Along with them Mr. Parindu Bhagat, Mr. Govindrao Gajendra Gadkar and Mr. Vinod Gajendra Gadkar were also taken into custody. All were thoroughly interrogated. The name of the sender written on the letters was ‘Prakash’. (Prakash was my pseudonym). The government also came to know about the holder of this name,” he wrote.
“Now all the people who were arrested were given various kinds of threats to get more information about the sender of these letters,” added Modi.
The police tried many tricks but these people did not give any information to the police.
Interestingly while the foreword of the book has been written by Dattopant Thengadi, an RSS stalwart, Modi has written about a page and a half talking about the book at the end in Appendix 4.
In this write up, Modi said: “This is my first book. I have written this book not as an author, but as a soldier of war, as a key to some difficult questions about the underground struggle that have remained unanswered so far.”
The article was first published on June 22, 2021, in The Print.
For details click on : https://theprint.in/india/how-narendra-modi-evaded-arrest-for-19-months-by-changing-his-name-and-look-during-emergency/681343/
How RSS Led From the Front During Emergency
I was very young when the Emergency was clamped on June 25, 1975. Born into a he family of swayamsewaks, I was the youngest to attend an RSS shakha. My father being the eldest among siblings, his brother and my brother were the other members of Sangh in the family. The proclamation of Emergency is etched in the memory also because the school where I used to study was shut down.
I still remember three or four other swayamsewaks along with my elder brother came back to our house carrying a football late evening and said that my uncle had been arrested and taken to the nearest police station for taking part in a “lookalike” RSS shakha. He was a government teacher and was supervising other kids playing football.
Immediately after the proclamation of Emergency, the RSS was banned. This was followed by advice from government that employees who are found to have connections with banned organisations were liable to be dealt with suitably under departmental proceedings and appropriate action should be taken against them.
With regard to banned organisations, it was seen that persons were detained mostly on vague police reports saying that they were connected with the RSS. During the period of emergency, 25,962 public servant and employees in the public sector undertaking were prematurely retired.
The Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was passed by the Parliament in 1971. After the proclamation of emergency, MISA was heavily used against political opponents. Scrutiny of cases of detention under MISA has revealed that in a majority of states, a large number of persons belonging to the opposition political parties were detained on ground of alleged participation in secret meetings in which imposition of emergency and government policy were criticised.
RSS Sarsanghchalak Balasaheb Deoras was arrested at Nagpur station on June 30, 1975. He gave a call before his arrest: “In this extraordinary situation, the volunteers have an obligation not to lose their balance. Continue the Sangh work as per the orders of Sarkaryavah Madhavrao Mule and build the ability of the public to perform their national duty while doing public relations, public awareness and public education as necessary.”
All kinds of communication platforms, such as newspapers, magazines, forums, postal service and elected legislatures, were stopped. The question was: who should organise the mass movement in this situation? No one else could do it except the RSS, which had its own network of branches across the country and could play this role.
The Sangh has built itself from the beginning through people-to-people contact. He never relied on press or forum for public relations. So the effect of stopping the media had an impact on other parties, but it did not have even a minor impact on the Sangh. Its central decisions at the all-India level reach the village through the levels of the province, department, district and tehsil. This communication system ran smoothly from when the Emergency was announced and the Emergency. The house of Sangh activists proved to be the greatest boon for taunting the underground movement and due to this, the intelligence officers could not find the whereabouts of underground workers.
The ‘Lok Sangharsh Samiti’ was formed and Nanaji Deshmukh was appointed its convener. Once he got arrested, Sunder Singh Bhandari took his place. Out of a total of 1,30,000 Satyagrahis who performed Satyagraha under its banner during the Emergency, more than 100,000 were from the RSS. Of the 30,000 people held captive under MISA, more than 25,000 belonged to the Sangh.
Rajender Singh, popularly known as Rajju Bhaiyya (then Jt General Seceratry RSS), went underground and toured all of India. Singh was also responsible for organising human rights convention presided by Justice VM Tarkunnde in Delhi in 1976. He was also responsible for setting up Friends of India Society International.
The RSS played a major role against the draconian emergency.
“The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to be the only non-left wing revolutionary force in the world, disavowing both bloodshed and class struggle. Indeed, it might even be called right wing since it is dominated by the Hindu communalist party, Jan Sangh and its ‘cultural’ (some say paramilitary) affiliate the RSS. But its platform at the moment has only one non-ideological plank; to bring democracy back to India. The ground troops of this operation (the underground movement), consist of tens of thousands of cadres who are organized to the village level into four men cells. Most of them are RSS regulars, though more and more new young recruits are coming in. The other underground parties which started out as partners in the underground have effectively abandoned the field to Jan Sangh and RSS,” wrote The Economist on December 12, 1976.
Achyut Patwardhan wrote, “I am pleased to learn that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists work with any other group of political resistance, with zeal and loyalty, and vampiric regime that resorts to extreme repression and lies. Those who were opposing emergency, the swayamsewaks were ready to cooperate with them openly. The courage and valor with which the Swayamsewaks were carrying out the movement in the face of the atrocities of the police, the communist member of the parliament – Shri AK Gopalan – was also shocked. He had said, “There is some high ideal that is giving them indomitable courage for such heroic work and sacrifice.”
The RSS inspired newspapers and magazines played a major role during emergency. This was the reasons many such magazines and newspapers had to face the wrath of the government. Few of such titles are Panchajanya, Organiser, Motherland, Tarun Bharat, Vivek, Vikram, Rashtradharm, Yugdharm.
The editor of Motherland and Organiser, KR Malkani, was the first journalist to be arrested during emergency and he remained in jail till the end of emergency. He wrote, “Motherland was the only newspaper in the country which in its edition published on 26 June not only informed people about emergency but also about arrest and protest at national level against emergency.”
He further wrote that the electricity of the Motherland office situated at Jhansi road, Jhandewalan, New Delhi, faced a power cut though there was electricity t at neighbouring office ‘Janyug’, the communist mouthpiece. Those who are lecturing today on “Freedom of Expression” should know the cost this freedom. And there is no other better organisation than RSS to learn from.
This article was first published on June 29, 2020 in www.news18.com
For details click on : https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/opinion-how-rss-led-from-the-front-during-emergency-2693323.html
Emergency: When Indira government unfairly targeted RSS, arrested and tortured thousands of Sangh volunteers
Always believed that our history is biased. The events haven’t been written as factual evidence of truth. Rather they are written to suit a certain narrative. Music same applies to theIndian emergency: the darkest period of our democracy. There are many books, articles and journals return on this period, but none mention the role of the rashtriya swayamsevak sangh in its fight to restore democracy. People always criticise the RSS toma but no one takes the effort to realise its contributions. This courage and heroism have always gone unnoticed: beat during the emergency or partition.
For Mrs Gandhi, RSS was always her main target. Do you know why? Because it was the Rs who had provided logistics to the movements in Gujarat and Bihar through its student organisations she feared the RSS. So even before the emergency was declared, she started planning ban on RSS it wasn’t in January of 1975 that Siddharth Shankar Ray had first presented a draft to Mrs Gandhi to ban the RSS. But much to her dismay, the draft leaked in the media And she had to halt her plans. So when she imposed the emergency, she used all all her might to quash the RSS.
As soon as Mrs Gandhi declared emergency thousands of RSS leaders and cadres were arrested and put behind the bars. In fact, then RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras was arrested and incarcerated in the Yerwada jail. Almost all jails around the country were packed with Swayamsevaks. According to PG Sahastrabuddhe in his book ‘The people versus emergency: a saga of struggle’ , 23,015 Swayamsevak were detained under the infamous Maintenance of Internal Security Act(MISA), of them 22,938 were male activists and 77 were female activists. When the satyagraha movement by the RSS begin, the number of RSS activists arrested doubled to 44,965 while only 9655 people of other parties offered satyagraha. Even after all of this she couldn’t deter the spirit of the RSS workers. In fact she underestimated the strength and capacity of RSS she had once admitted, “we were not able to capture even 10% of the RSS workers. They all have gone underground, and the RSS did not disperse even after the ban, on the contrary, it was striking the roots in new areas like Kerala”.
RSS had defied the ban and walked down the path of Satyagraha. It is funny to note that the party who claims to be Gandhian and people who are his inheritance have been repressive and oppressive to the RSS, while they decided to follow the principles of Mahatma Gandhi in their fight to restore democracy. This is the time the Sangh Parivar came together. Thousands of swayamsevak joined the satyagraha, distributed anti-emergency literature and collected funds through household contribution to sustain the movement and the families of those who were jailed. People even housed many swayamsevaks as part of their families so that they aren’t arrested! Indeed, the people of India then saw the dedication and selfless service of the RSS.
The satyagraha was organised from November 14,1975 to January 14,1975. The demands of the Swayamsevaks were simple; immediate restoration of democracy, lifting the press censorship and immediate release of all the Swayamsevaks who have been unjustly put behind bars. In his book PG Sahastrabuddhe also mentioned that over one and a half lakh people joined in this satyagraha. Of them over 80,000 were Swayam sevaks. And to crush this movement Mrs Gandhi arrested 44,965 Swayamsevaks, which included 2424 women as well. Lest we forget, 87 Swayamsevaks lost their lives in this fight to restore our democracy.
The atrocities committed by the government during Emergency is well documented in the Shah Commission report which magically got lost when Mrs Gandhi came back to power. The report was divided into 26 chapters and three appendices and contained around 530 pages. The sheer size of the report will tell you of the enormity of violence committed by the then government. From midnight knocks and arbitrary arrests; censorship of the press; premature retirement or supersession of inconvenient officers, including members of the higher judiciary; bulldozing of the slums; and forced sterlisation of men, everything was captured in this report. Era Sezhiyan ensured that the report is found and published for all to see what happened during the Emergency!
No, the RSS did not agree to the conditional lifting of the ban which was offered by Mrs Gandhi. For the RSS, this fight to restore democracy was something they are bound by, through their oath: service to the nation. So, how could they agree to something that would only serve their self-interest and ignore the millions of their brothers and sisters? To them, the fight against the fascist regime of Mrs. Gandhi was their natural duty. They wanted to restore India back to its original glory!
The swayamsevaks displayed utmost national consciousness coupled with unwavering devotion to their duty of selfless service to the nation at an extremely critical juncture of Independent India. They defended the freedom and democracy of India. But history yet remains ever so thankless to them! Isn’t it time now to re-write our history the way it should be written?
This article was first published on March 13,2020 in mynation.com.
For details click on : https://www.mynation.com/views/emergency-when-indira-government-unfairly-targeted-rss-arrested-and-tortured-thousands-of-sangh-volunteers-q74q10
Emergency & RSS: A forgotten chapter in India’s recent history
June 25, 2019 will be observed as ‘Black Day’, marking the 44th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. After a midnight proclamation signed by president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Gandhi ruled virtually by decree, bypassing Parliament. She suspended civil liberties, habeas corpus, and freedom of the press. Most opposition leaders were thrown into prison, including octogenarian Morarji Desai and ‘Loknayak’ Jayaprakash Narayan or JP. The latter was ailing and suffered kidney failure.
JP, a lifelong Gandhian Socialist, became the rallying point in a struggle to overthrow Mrs. Gandhi. Socialists, we should remember, were also allergic to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Mrs. Gandhi had of course banned RSS during the Emergency. However, it was the RSS, with its thousands of karyakartas (workers), swayamsevaks (self-helpers), and pracharaks (activists), that was leading the fight against Emergency on behalf of civil society. JP was forced to change his mind; he became an ardent supporter of the RSS.
We may recall that during the Partition, the RSS had sheltered leaders of all political stripes and colours, as well as protected their families from murderous criminals and killers in West Punjab, soon to become Pakistan. If there was one organisation that offered succour and safe passage to Hindu refugees streaming into India across the border, it was the RSS. Once again during the Emergency, the RSS, though banned, helped protect many underground leaders, regardless of political affiliation. Indeed, in or out of jail, most non-Congress politicians suddenly discovered that the RSS workers were not ‘untouchable’. Soft spoken, disciplined, and ever-willing to sacrifice their own comforts and conveniences to serve others, they earned widespread affection and respect. After the Emergency was lifted, these humble RSS workers returned home to their normal lives without any fuss or seeking of favours. This despite the fact that many of them, not to mention their families, had suffered tremendous hardship and privation.
I was not yet fifteen when the Emergency was declared, but I remember those dark days vividly. My own relatives, including my Mama-ji, Sanjeevan Gajanan Deodhar, were in jail. My uncle, a Math teacher, was a gentle, learned soul. I asked my mother why he was in prison. She replied with one word and one tear, “Deshaasathi”— for the sake of the nation. Actually, his only “crime” was that he belonged to the RSS. I was struck by how, for the first time since India attained independence, lakhs of political prisoners were incarcerated in their own country. During his sojourn at Vadodara Central Jail, Sanjeevan Mama taught Yoga and the Bhagawad Gita to his fellow political prisoners. When I asked him how he had endured those 21 months, he made light of his trauma: “They were among the best in my life; we learned so much from one another.”
The contribution of RSS to the struggle against Emergency was soon forgotten. The newly forged Janata Party, which won a massive mandate in the 1977 general elections, formed the government with Morarji Desai as PM. The spirit of 1977, however, was short-lived. Raj Narayan, the ‘giant slayer’, who had defeated Mrs Gandhi in her own stronghold of Rae Bareli, turned into the sinister joker in the pack. He raised the bogey of dual membership, objecting to former members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh continuing to be members of the RSS. But RSS workers had always been seconded or assigned to other organisations. The Jana Sangh, founded by Syama Prasad Mukherjee on Vijayadashami, October 21, 1951 was no exception. Even today some of the top leaders, not to speak of rank and file of BJP, come from the RSS. Party breaker Charan Singh, forgetting RSS sacrifices during the Emergency, made it the scapegoat. The Janata Party, a motley patchwork of all kinds of parties and ideologies —in today’s parlance, a mahamilavat —fell apart in 1988. Whatever remained of it merged into Charan Singh’s Janata Dal. Charan Singh grabbed the PM’s gaddi displacing Morarji Desai. The euphoria was over.
The RSS and the erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh formed a new political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, on April 6, 1980, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani as its leaders. That is how the lotus first bloomed in the stinking sludge of the failed Janata Party experiment. Today, people talk about how the idea of India has changed under Modi 2.0. Actually, if ever it was seriously threatened, it was during the gloomy interregnum of the Emergency. On “Black Day”, June 25, 2019, let us remember how the RSS fought tooth-and-nail to restore our democracy and freedom, both of which remain central to the enduring idea of India. On my part, I’m glad to write this account on the 79th death anniversary of “Doctorji” Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of RSS, which also happens to be the 5th international yoga day.
This article was first published on June 22, 2019 in www.dnaindia.com
For details click on : https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-emergency-rss-a-forgotten-chapter-in-india-s-recent-history-2763669
The RSS led the fight against Emergency – Just look up its archival history
When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed the state of emergency in the country on the night of June 25, 1975, one of the first organisations to be banned was the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The central government banned the RSS on July 4, 1975. The RSS chief (Sarsanghchalak) Balasaheb Deoras had been taken into custody on June 30, 1975 at Nagpur railway station. Deoras was kept at Yerwada jail in Pune. A number of top leaders of the RSS were arrested, along with thousands of Swayamsevaks. The RSS is known to have played a stellar role in the movement against emergency.
The Economist wrote on December 12, 1976:
“The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to be the only non-left wing revolutionary force in the world, disavowing both bloodshed and class struggle. The ground troops of this operation (the underground movement), consist of tens of thousands of cadres who are organized to the village level into four men cells. Most of them are RSS regulars, though more and more new young recruits are coming in. The other underground parties which started out as partners in the underground have effectively abandoned the field to Jan Sangh and RSS.”
Deoras, who led this movement from the front even when in jail, wrote twice to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In both the letters, he mounted a strong attack on the misinformation campaign against the RSS being run at the behest of Gandhi.
In his first letter, dated August 12, 1975, Deoras counters all the allegations against the RSS in detail and clearly indicates that the RSS would not buckle down under the government’s pressure.
The RSS chief begins the letter saying, “I listened attentively in jail to the radio broadcast of your address to the nation from the Red Fort on Aug. 15, 1975. On July 4 1975, the Central government issued a special ordinance to ban the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS). From press reports about the ban it appears that it has been imposed on the ground that the activities of its swayamsevaks and senior workers are prejudicial to the security of the country and public law and order.”
Then Deoras lucidly counters the false propaganda against the RSS. He writes, “The ban order does not give a specific reason for the ban. The RSS has never done anything that would endanger the country’s internal security and public law and order. The objective of the Sangh is to organize the whole Hindu Society and make it homogeneous and self-respecting. …Sometimes people level charges against the Sangh. It is not possible to answer them all in this letter. Still, it is necessary to make it clear that Sangh had never indulged in violence. Neither has it ever taught violence. The Sangh does not believe in such things.”
“There is not a single instance during the past 50 years of Sangh swayamsevaks indulging in violence and subversion. There were many riots and incidents of violence in the country, but no court verdict and no report of any commission appointed by the government shows that Sangh swayamsevaks had a hand in it.”
“The Sangh is engaged selflessly in the work making every Hindu an excellent citizen and a patriot of noble character. It is tragic that our own government should impose ban on it.”
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country on the night of June 25, 1975.
Asking Gandhi to lift the ban, Deoras ends the letter by saying, “I appeal to you to rise above prejudices against Sangh. In view of the fundamental right of freedom of assembly in a democratic country, I request you to remove the ban on the RSS.”
In the second later, dated November 10, 1975, the RSS chief asked the Prime Minister not to call Jai Prakash Narayan an anti-national. “It is not appropriate for you to repeatedly call Shri Jai Prakash ji a CIA agent, pro-capitalist and anti-national. He (Jai Prakash Narayan) is also a patriot.”
Deoras castigates Indira Gandhi by saying, “Your actions have lost complete touch with reality and they based on wrong feedback from the ground level. Your perception about the Sangh is an outcome of your biased thinking. Probably you have been fed wrong information by the political people surrounding you.”
He then again asks Gandhi to lift the ban on the RSS so that its Swayamsevaks could go back to the organisational work that would ultimately benefit the nation.
Thus, two letters written by Deoras to Gandhi clearly indicate the RSS’ clear stand of opposing the emergency, and not seeking any clemency, as alleged by some of its detractors.
In fact, in two more letters written to Sarvodayi leader Vinoba Bhave in 1976, Deoras urges him to give the right advice to Gandhi so that democracy could be restored in the country.
The first letter was written on January 12, 1976, where the RSS chief rejects all the allegations made against the Sangh. In the second letter, Deoras requests Bhave to clear the misconceptions about the RSS and to lift the ban on it when he meets Indira Gandhi. This letter was written when Deoras came to know through newspaper reports that Gandhi would be meeting Bhave.
Some of the senior RSS pracharaks, including Nanaji Deshmukh (who played a major role in bringing Opposition together under the banner of Janata Party in 1977) and KS Sudarshan (who later became the fifth RSS chief) also communicated to the outside world as well as within the organisation through letters.
Nanaji Deshmukh wrote to film artistes, urging them to join the movement for restoring democracy during emergency. “…You have a special position the society. You are a model for the youth. They imitate you; you entertain huge crowds. You lift the spirits. The question is, will you confine yourself to mere entertainment in these difficult times? Will you teach them only to escape from the problems of life? The call of the hour is that you replace the despair of today with hope born of thought. I request you to participate in people’s struggle.”
Sudarshan wrote an open letter to RSS Swayamsevaks, giving a clarion call to continue to fight as “This is an ideological battle.” He did not stop at that but went on to challenge the Prime Minister.
Sudarshan told his fellow Swayamsevaks through this letter, “As seen from her statements from time to time, she expects that the opposition should abjectly surrender before her, ask her forgiveness for deeds it has never committed, stand aside from her way forever and give her way for absolute rule… No one among us will be ready for such a surrender. So without any expecting any quarters from the powers that we have to courageously wait for the right moment with the faith that ultimately truth and Dharma will triumph.”
It is clear from these letters that the negative impression being sought to be created about the Sangh’s role during the Emergency by its detractors is nothing but a misinformation campaign.
At least 87 Swayamsevaks sacrificed their lives during the Emergency (a list with names and details is available in The People Vs Emergency: A saga of struggle by PG Sahasrabuddhe and Manikchandra Vajpayee).
Thousands of Swayamsevaks were arrested while many more stayed outside and ran an underground campaign.
The Sangh’s functionaries suffered the most during the Emergency, but yet, Deoras, who himself was in jail throughout the period, said after the victory of Janata Party that it was time to “forgive and forget” and not be vindictive against anyone.
But the Janata Party leaders didn’t act on this advice and resurrected Indira Gandhi by hounding her. The rest we all know is history.
(The information given in the article is based on the documents available in the RSS archives.)
This article was first published on Jun 30, 2018, in www.dailyo.in.
For details click on: https://www.dailyo.in/politics/emergency-indira-gandhi-rss-balasaheb-deoras-25200
Constitution Day: How RSS played key role in defending Constitution of Bharat
November 26 is celebrated as Constitution Day every year as Bharat’s Constituent Assembly had adopted the Constitution of the Country on 26 November 1949. It came into force on 26 January 1950.
The Constitution of Bharat is a living document, and it has faced several onslaughts in the past from communists and Congress while the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has emerged as one of the key forces defending the Constitution.
The first onslaught on our Constitution came when the first Prime Minister of independent Bharat Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru pushed for the first Amendment in the Constitution even though he was heading an interim government and the first general elections were yet to be held.
The first Amendment that restricted freedom of expression was an outcome of the Nehru government’s intent to clamp down on voices critical of the government. The immediate trigger for restricting freedom of expression by Nehru was primarily the battle between him and Organiser, an English weekly backed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Nehru had imposed pre-censorship on Organiser as its reports were critical of his government’s handling of the partition and the exodus of Hindu refugees from east Pakistan. The Organiser went to the Supreme Court and got the order quashed. Nehru responded by restricting the freedom of expression by amending the Constitution of Bharat.
The Nehru vs Organiser case is known in constitutional history as Brij Bhushan vs The State of Delhi. The case ignited a nationwide debate. A large number of prominent personalities became wary of the Nehru government’s onslaught on the Constitution.
The then Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Justice MC Chagla, castigated the Nehru government in a public lecture at Pune on 1 May as he said, “The Constitution had not left it to the party in power in the legislature or the caprice of the executive to limit, control or impair any fundamental rights… The right to express opinion, however critical it might be of the government or society as constituted, was one of the most fundamental rights of the individual in a democratic form of government.”
PR Das, brother of Congress stalwart CR Das, who also happened to be a prominent jurist and former judge of Patna High Court and remarked, “The danger, which I apprehend is that the government may suppress all political parties that do not believe in the Congress government on the plea that the interests of the public order demand that these parties should be suppressed.”
Kailash Nath Katju, another prominent jurist and Governor of Bengal at that time, warned, “We must take care that in the name of preservation of state and stopping of subversive activities, we may not stifle democracy itself.”
During the parliamentary debate on first amendment, the leader of Opposition Syama Prasad Mookerjee brilliantly exposed this attack on Constitution as he told Nehru, “You can pass a law and say that the entire task of framing, interpreting and working the Constitution will be left in the hands of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, assisted by such people, whom he may desire to consult…You are treating this Constitution as a scrap of paper.” Mookerjee was the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), a political outfit that drew inspiration and many key workers from the RSS. BJS was a predecessor of Bharatiya Janata Party and along with RSS was on the forefront to oppose another attack on the Constitution in 1975.
Emergency: Constitution under threat
Congress leader and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed internal Emergency in India at midnight on 25-26 June 1975.This was the most serious threat to Bharatiya Constitution since independence. She not only suspended all civil liberties but made a mockery of the Constitution by altering even its Preamble through 42nd amendment.
This amendment was passed by Parliament that was devoid of any Opposition as all the leaders had been sent to jail by the Indira government! This amendment added the words ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’ in the Preamble. This was like tampering the soul of the Constitution and the most undemocratic move in the history of independent Bharat.
However, had it not been for the RSS that led from the front the movement to restore constitutional norms and democracy in Bharat, the onslaughts on Constitution by the Congress government would have continued unabated.
It is important to note what the foreign press said about the role of the RSS in the anti-Emergency movement as the Bharatiya press had largely been reeling under the strict censorship imposed by the government during Emergency.
The Economist, published an article titled Yes there is an Underground on 24 January 1976 where it explained the ground situation in Bharat during Emergency, “In formal terms, the underground is an alliance of four Opposition parties: The Jana Sangh (the RSS’ political wing), the socialist party, the breakaway fraction of the Congress party and the Lok Dal… But the shock troops of the movement come largely from the Jana Sangh and its band affiliate RSS, which claim a combined membership of 10m (of whom 80,000, including 6,000 full-time party workers, are in prison).”
Later The Economist wrote on 12 December 1976: “The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to be the only non-left wing revolutionary force in the world, disavowing both bloodshed and class struggle. The ground troops of this operation (the underground movement), consist of tens of thousands of cadres who are organized to the village level into four men cells. Most of them are RSS regulars, though more and more new young recruits are coming in. The other underground parties which started out as partners in the underground have effectively abandoned the field to Jan Sangh and RSS.”
Incidentally the communists and the Congress were hand in glove during the Emergency. UK based daily newspaper The Guardian exposed this nexus in an article dated 2 August 1976, titled The Empress Reigns Supreme: “Pro-CPI (Communist Party of India) journals in India are being given some latitude by the censors because the party is in favour of even stronger measures to suppress the non-communist opposition.”
The New York Times published a report on 28 October 1976 where it clearly said, “The only political parties which are supporting Congress Party of the government in the actions that it is taking are the Communist Party of India, the pro-Moscow Communist party and the Moslem League.”
Violation of spirit of Constitution
Even after the Emergency, there have been repeated attempts by the Congress governments or Congress led governments to tamper with the soul and spirit of the Constitution.
To give a few examples: Legislation brought by Rajiv Gandhi government under the pressure of Muslim hardliners to upturn the judgement of Supreme Court in Shah Bano case; in 1988, perturbed over the reporting of Press on Bofors scandal, Rajiv Gandhi tried to bring draconian anti-defamation bill but it had to withdraw it due to a strong backlash from all sections of society; in 2014, the Congress led United Progressive Alliance(UPA) government tried to bring an anti-Hindu bill in the name of ‘Anti-Communal Violence’ bill. A strong opposition from the BJP and various sections of society compelled the UPA to drop this bill. This bill was drafted by a body called National Advisory Council (NAC), a body dominated by civil society representatives who were well known for their anti-Hindu and Leftist stance. The formation of this body was itself a violation of the spirit of the Constitution as it had become a power centre and significantly influenced the policy apparatus and decision making of the then UPA government. The then Congress President Sonia Gandhi was the chairperson of NAC.
Conclusion
There have been repeated attempts to violate the spirit of our Constitution in the past but organisations like the RSS have always come to the forefront to restore this spirit. The Narendra Modi government has also done well to restore, maintain and perpetuate the dignity of the Constitution by removing hundreds of archaic laws and through amendments in Article 370 that have corrected a long pending anomaly. As we move ahead in the Amrit Kaal, it is time to learn lessons from the past so that we can evolve our Constitution to suit the needs of the future while ensuring that the democracy in Bharat continues to thrive.
This article was first published on November 26, 2022, in www.firstpost.com.
For details click on : https://www.firstpost.com/opinion-news-expert-views-news-analysis-firstpost-viewpoint/right-word-constitution-day-how-rss-played-key-role-in-defending-constitution-of-bharat-11700531.html)