1976 THE GREAT HUSH

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1947-2008-India-Roundup

The Emergency remained in force and India’s jails were flooded with people. On March 28, the Supreme Court held that habeas corpus petitions of detainees would not be allowed during the Emergency. A series of constitutional amendments was passed to aid Indira Gandhi’s longevity. With the population crossing the 60-crore mark, the country’s new family planning policy was announced, envisaging a dramatic reduction of the country’s birth rate from 3.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent by 1984—it stands at 2.3 currently. The minimum age of marriage was increased to 18 for women and 21 for men. Allegations of forced sterilization flew thick and fast, but were denied vehemently by Indira and Sanjay Gandhi. “I have to keep India together,” justified Indira, “That is an absolute must.”

JOURNEY OF CONFIDENCE

The first train connecting India and Pakistan, the Samjhauta Express, was flagged off on July 22. In September, an Indian Airlines Boeing hijacked to Lahore returned safely with help from Pakistan.

FIRST CUT

• The Congress secured a two-thirds majority for the first time in the Rajya Sabha on March 27.
• The first-ever trade agreement between India and Algeria was signed on February 10, providing for the import of petroleum products by India.

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Cartoonist K. Shanker Pillai shut down his magazine saying “dictatorships cannot afford laughter”. “In all the years of Hitler, there never was a good comedy, not a good cartoon, not a parody, not a spoof.” Hindi novelist Phanishwarnath Renu returned his Padma Shri and Kannada writer Shivarama Karanth returned his Padma Bhushan. The Press Council was abolished and 253 journalists were placed under arrest.

It took the government nearly a year to arrest socialist leader George Fernandez, who had led the 1974 railway strike. He traveled from place to place, sending letters attacking “that woman”. His brother, Lawrence, was tortured.

“SHE LISTENED TO ME EVEN WHEN I WAS FIVE YEARS OLD.”

Sanjay Gandhi

So said Sanjay Gandhi about the prime minister in an interview to a magazine called Surge. Surrounded by his coterie of Naveen Chawla, P.S. Bhinder, Rukhsana Sultana and Ambika Soni, Sanjay, who held no office, but was regarded as the prime minister’s adviser, launched the controversial family planning programme amidst allegations of coercion. His five-point programme of family planning, tree planting, ban on dowry, removal of illiteracy and slum clearance turned India into what Times columnist Bernard Levin called a tin-pot dictatorship, transforming the country into a “fully authoritarian regime under its seedy dictator, Mrs. Indira Gandhi”.

Courtesy By India Today