EMERGENCY AND ITS LESSONS

THE CONTEXT: On 25 June 2025 India marks 50 years since the Proclamation of Emergency that eclipsed civil liberties for 21 months (1975-77). The Union Government has asked all States to observe Samvidhān Hatya Diwas annually, while senior constitutional authorities have called the episode “an earthquake that tried to destroy democracy”.

• • The commemoration coincides with a global democratic recession: 42 countries slipped into autocratisation in 2024 alone, the worst figure since V-Dem began recording in 1900.
  • Scholars such as John Keane warn of a “new despotism”—pseudo-democratic regimes that weaponise elections, patronage and digital surveillance to secure voluntary servitude rather than rule by terror.

THE BACKGROUND:

• • Economic headwinds: post-1971 war costs, twin droughts and the 1973 oil shock triggered 12 % wholesale-price inflation and 7 % fiscal deficit.
  • Political ferment: Nav Nirman, Bihar JP movement and the 1974 rail strike signalled a legitimacy crisis.
  • Judicial spark: The Allahabad High Court (12 June 1975) unseated Prime-Minister Indira Gandhi for corrupt practices, catalysing executive over-reach.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

• • Carl Schmitt’s “state of exception” v. Dicey’s “rule of law”: Emergency tested whether legality could restrain concentrated power.
  • Constitutional morality (Dr B. R. Ambedkar) demands that discretionary provisions be exercised with self-limiting restraint; 1975 exposed its fragility.
  • Basic-structure doctrine (Kesavananda, 1973) later saved the Constitution from permanent deformation (Minerva Mills, 1980).
  • New Despotism (Keane): Seduction → Deception → Subjugation rather than open terror; relies on data panopticons and patron-client welfare.

WHAT, WHY, HOW OF EMERGENCY POWERS:

THE SIGNIFICANCE

• • Democratic deepening: Post-Emergency electorate ended single-party dominance; coalition politics became the new normal.
  • Institutional lessons: Parliament restored checks; judiciary reclaimed review powers; civil society internalised a “never again” ethic.
  • Policy legacies: Mandal Commission (1979) reshaped social justice discourse; information activism (RTI 2005) draws moral capital from the period.

DRIVERS OF POTENTIAL ABUSE TODAY:

• • Digital-authoritarian affordances – predictive policing, deep-fake propaganda, micro-targeted welfare.
  • Geo-economic clubbing – despots “hunt in packs”, swap surveillance tech, invest in each other (Trump–Gulf 2025 mega-deals).
  • Middle-class complicity: patronage-fuelled “aspirational authoritarianism”.
  • Polarised information ecology: algorithm-steered echo chambers degrade deliberation.

• • Majoritarian mandates and weak intra-party democracy.
  • Executive dominance over investigative agencies and Governor’s offices.

INDIAN VULNERABILITIES POST-EMERGENCY SAFEGUARDS:

• • Preventive-detention spike: 5 765 under National Security Act/Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in 2023. (MHA, Unstarred Q. 1423/2024)
  • Internet shutdowns: 84 in 2024, highest globally.
  • Press freedom squeeze: Economic fragility, criminal defamation and advertising leverage throttling regional dailies.

THE ISSUES:

• • Concentration of power: Over-broad definitions (“public order”, “security”) permit discretionary arrests.
  • Judicial backlog & self-restraint: 69 % vacancy in High Courts hampers timely habeas corpus.
  • Media vulnerability: Dependency on government advertising and criminal defamation chills investigative journalism.
  • Digital authoritarianism: Section 69A IT Act takedown orders lack transparent appeal.
  • Fiscal centralisation: 45 % of gross tax receipts retained by Centre; States’ ability to resist central pressure shrinks.
  • Civic education deficit: Lokniti-CSDS (2024) shows only 37 % youth could identify Article 19 correctly.

THE WAY FORWARD:

• • Codify threshold tests: Enact a National Emergency Criteria Act defining measurable indicators. Judicial audit within 72 hours to test proportionality. Ensures objectivity and rapid review.
  • Parliamentary war-room committees: Mirror UK dual-house Joint Committee on 11-member bipartisan panel receives daily briefings, can veto regulations by simple majority. Enhances real-time legislative oversight.
  • Sunset & renewal clauses: All preventive-detention orders lapse after 90 days unless confirmed by a High Court Bench; digital dashboard auto-publishes anonymised data. Curtails indefinite incarceration and increases transparency.
  • Constitutional litigation fast track: Establish Article 352 benches in Supreme Court and each High Court; dispose petitions within 15 days. Prevents ADM-Jabalpur-style vacuum and upholds habeas corpus.
  • Whistle-blower amnesty window: During any emergency, disclosures to Lokpal or Standing Committee receive absolute immunity under Evidence Act. Encourages bureaucratic resistance to illegal orders.

THE CONCLUSION:

Half a century after 1.12 lakh detentions and a 29 % fall in newspaper circulation, India’s democracy endures because institutions learnt to hard-wire humility into power. Completing the unfinished agenda—real-time oversight, digital freedoms and civic vigilance—can ensure that the ‘darkest chapter’ of 1975 remains a class-room lesson, never a policy option.

UPSC PAST YEAR QUESTION:

Q. Under what circumstances can the Financial Emergency be proclaimed by the President of India? What consequences follow when such a declaration remains in force? 2018

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTION: 

Q. Seduction, not suppression, characterises twenty-first-century despotism. Analyse in the Indian context, comparing post-1977 constitutional guardrails.

SOURCE:

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-emergency-its-lessons-10086542/

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/israel-iran-ceasefire-a-fragile-pause-10086474/