Wednesday, June 25, 2014

DESPOTIC DYNASTY DISPLACING DEMOCRACY WITH EMERGENCY IMPOSED BY TOTALITARIAN INDIRA GANDHI PRETENDING TO PROTECT DEMOCRACY BY OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE AND DESTROYING THE EVIDENCE EXPOSED IN SHAH COMMISSION REPORT


http://www.scribd.com/doc/138066146/Shah-Commission-of-Inquiry-Interim-Report-I

http://www.scribd.com/doc/138066806/Shah-Commission-of-Inquiry-Interim-Report-II

Morarji Desai and Dr. Subramanian Swamy in the wake of the Indira Gandhi's shameful draconian Emergency. The saga of how Dr. Swamy appeared in the Parliament defying the arrest warrant of Indira Gandhi has to be documented separately. It took the patriotism of such leaders under JP's guidance to defy the rotten chamchagiri documented in Shah Commission Report and achieve Swarajyam Kraanti led and exemplified by NaMo assuming Prime Ministership in 2014. This golden narrative of Bharatiya history also has to be documented separately.
http://www.outlookindia.com/article/That-Darkness-Still-Stalks-Our-Dreams/291101

M.G. DEVASAHAYAM
Icon Keeper The writer, with Jayaprakash Narain
OPINION
That Darkness Still Stalks Our Dreams
Amid the beginnings of an attempt to stifle all dissent, the PM must remember JP, one of his gurus



On the midnight of June 25, 1975, prime minister Indira Gandhi nearly destroyed India’s democratic framework with a piece of paper that proclaimed a state of emergency. It was carried by her private secretary to the President, who meekly signed it. The misgovernance that followed extinguished freedom, suspended fundamental rights, fettered the press, suppressed dissent. More than one lakh citizens were illegally detained. Draco­nian laws followed. Democratic governance collapsed.
At that time, I was the district magistrate of Chandigarh, a Union Territory governed by the Centre. The home ministry and the PMO were directly monitoring my “eminent prisoner”, Jayaprakash Narain, India’s tallest leader after Mohandas Gandhi, and now Enemy No. 1 of the state. He’d been arrested by the district magistrate of Delhi and sent to me for safe custody. So I had a ringside view of the Emergency, right from the corridors of power in Delhi to the streets of Chandigarh. Everyone could see the Emergency drama around them, but I—a member of the elite IAS, but primarily a freedom-loving citizen—had the opportunity to witness, feel and be a part of the intense struggle of JP, the “revolutionary in chains”.
In my own humble way, I initiated certain moves for reconciliation between JP and Indira Gandhi so that the Emergency would be lifted and democracy restored at the earliest. I’d even roped in Sheikh Abdullah for the purpose through the good offices of Punjab chief minister Giani Zail Singh. These efforts were repeatedly sabotaged by an extra-constitutional authority at Delhi’s pinnacle of power. Mysteriously, starting early November, the health of JP, who was lodged at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, began to deteriorate sharply. I had every reason to suspect that a conspiracy was on to incapacitate JP by damaging his kidneys and put him out of harm’s way if not eliminate him. Probably, Delhi durbar felt that JP was the only person of moral stature who could challenge the dynasty. Later events proved me right.
By divine grace, I could defeat the conspiracy by playing hardball with the Centre with a pointed poser: “What if JP dies in detention?” That sent shivers in the PMO, for just a few weeks earlier,  sleuths had rehearsed a “death-in-detention” drill. Within a week, JP was released on unconditional parole. In defiance of Delhi durbar, I commandeered seats on a flight and sent JP to Jaslok Hospital in Bombay with his brother Rajeshwar Prasad and friend Minoo Masani. We were just in time for his kidneys to be saved. JP lived for four more years, albeit on dialysis twice a week. For this audacity, I did incur the wrath of the ‘dynasty’ scion and his minions. But I had the honour of JP calling me “the son I never had” and Dr Manmohan Singh complimenting me, saying, “Deva, you did not merely save JP, you saved Indian democracy.”
In the 1977 election, JP led the Janata combine and threw the Congress out of power. Needless to say, the conspiracy to damage JP’s kidneys was never fully investigated and the Alva commission set up by Janata government was wound up under intense pressure from vested interests still owing allegiance to the Congress dynasty.
Be that as it may, a ‘secret’ IB report leaked on June 11 lists me among ‘eminent persons’ who are part of an anti-national, foreign-funded “Superior Network of pan-India NGOs”, including Greenpeace and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). These NGOs are allegedly “taking down development”, impacting GDP by three per cent and endangering “national economic security” by articulating people-centric issues. Is that not the sort of language used during the Emergency? The PUCL, founded by that great patriot JP, responded that the report was an attempt to intimidate and kill dissent from those who raise an often lonely voice against life- and livelihood-destroying development programmes.

Scary Power Fisherfolk protest the Koodankulam N-plant
Indeed, I have been speaking up against big-ticket, forest-destroying, coast-ravaging and livelihood-killing proje­cts such as Vedanta and Posco. Also against  resource-guzzling, secretive and extremely expensive nuclear projects such as the 2,000 MW Koodankulam plant (to be expanded to 6,000 MW) and the 2,800 MW Gorakhpur plant (in Haryana).
I oppose the Koodankulam project because it has devastated the southeastern seabed and would rob lakhs of fisherfolk of a livelihood. It could also hang like a sword of Damocles over millions of project-affected people because of unsafe equipment. As recently as May 14, six personnel were seriously injured at the Koodankulam plant because of malfunctioning valves. I oppose the Gorakhpur project because the 320 cusecs of Bhakra canal water allotted to this plant would deprive 1.4 lakh acres of farmland of water. The region is semi-arid and the cotton, wheat, pulses and oilseeds grown here depend on irrigation from the canal. Farming supports the lives of about a million directly engaged in it here. Villages here are also the habitat of blackbuck (a “near-threatened” species) and the project will cause the animals immense harm. Another reason I oppose nuclear reactors  is because post-Fukushima, they raise great worries about being a threat to life itself. Nuclear energy, which generates just one per cent of the country’s needs, is not the answer to India’s electricity problems. It is also very expensive, if all costs—capital, construction, commissioning, operation, decommissioning and safe storage of spent-fuel—are honestly factored in.
This ‘development’ model is anti-poor. Opposing them, in fact, is in consonance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governance agenda, unveiled in the President’s add­ress to Parliament on June 9. It swears by ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ or inclusive development and goes on to say: “...my government commits itself to the goal of poverty elimination. With a firm belief that the first claim on development belongs to the poor, the government will focus its attention on those who need the basic necessities of life most urgently. It will take necessary steps to provide security in its entirety to all citizens, through empathy, support and empowerment.” It is precisely these people-centric issues that the ‘listed’ individuals and NGOs are advancing. Intriguingly, the IB report was leaked the very day after this speech. Is it to scuttle Modi’s pro-poor agenda? The jury is out!
Back to the Emergency. Even after four decades, this dark era continues to haunt the nation. Writing in Outlook in June 2010, Arundhati Roy wrote: “June 26 is the 35th anniversary of the Emergency. Perhaps the Indian people should declare that this country is still in a state of Emergency.” When the UPA government threatened Maoist sympathisers with imprisonment under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, rights activists retorted: “We consider this as an attack on civil society reminiscent of the Emergency era.” Anchoring CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation debate on the censorship of Prakash Jha’s movie Raajneeti, Sagarika Ghosh’s poser was, “Are we under Emergency?” What now, with some top guns pushing for a harsher POTA and the decimation of ‘Maoists’ by deploying the military?
Despite the fact that the Emergency is remembered and recalled whenever any blatantly unlawful act or excess is committed, people at large, particularly those of the younger generation, have no idea as to what it was all about. On the eve of the 36th anniversary of the Emergency, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar wrote: “The new generation must understand that today’s non-governance or misgovernance is the fallout of what Indira Gandhi had done 36 years ago by destroying an established democratic order.... How do you make the new generation relate to the Emergency imposed some 36 years ago this week? I have been asked this question many a time...I do not have an answer.” Nayar’s anguish is proof enough as to how this crucial part of India’s freedom-killing post-­independence history has been pushed under the carpet!
At the peak of the Emergency, when Indira Gandhi proclaimed that “food is more important than freedom”, JP had thundered: “Freedom became one of the beacon lights of my life and it has remained so ever since. Freedom...transcended the mere freedom of my country and embraced freedom of man everywhere and from every sort of trammel—above all it meant freedom of the human personality, freedom of the mind, freedom of the spirit. This freedom has become a passion of my life and I shall not see it compromised for bread, for security, for prosperity, for the glory of the state or for anything else.”
According to some accounts, JP was Modi’s guiding beacon during his long sociopolitical journey. Will Modi—who worshipped at the ‘temple of democracy’ before entering it—honour his icon’s freedom agenda or let petty minds belittle it? This is the billion-people question for Modi!
(The writer is a former army officer and IAS officer. He’s now an activist.)
Book Introduction by Shri L.K Advani -Shah Commission Report: Lost, and RegainedThe report is in print NOW and should be translated in to all Indian languages.

Book Introduction by Shri L.K Advani -Shah Commission Report: Lost, and Regained


 / IN BOOKS, FEATURED / JUNE 25, 2011
Book-Shah Commission Report: Lost, and Regained.,
Publisher-Aazhi Publishers, Chennai Price: Rs. 950.
Author – Era. Chezhiyan
Description-A precious historical and political document — once buried,now got resurrected. Investigation of the widespread misuse and abuse of power during the imposition of double emergencies, external and internal in 1975-77
Book introduction by Shri L.K Advani
This new book has been compiled and edited by an old friend and Parliamentary colleague of mine, Era Sezhiyan.  Born in 1923, Sezhiyan became an ardent follower and highly trusted assistant of C.N. Annadurai, founder of the DMK. He was in Parliament from 1962 to 1984.  After the 1977 elections, he was a Founder-Member of the Janata Party and served in its National Working Committee and Parliamentary Board. This fresh compilation, re-editing and republication makes the book Sezhiyan’s signal service to history. His  PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION is a startling revelation as to what actually provoked him to go in for this sort of private republication of an official document.
Sezhiyan adds:“When I wanted in the middle of September 2010 some background material about the declaration of June 1975 Emergency, I was astounded by the positive statements in some websites about the disappearance of the Shah Commission Report with assertive conclusion that ‘not a single copy of the Report exists in India’.

A SIGNAL SERVICE TO HISTORY

Today, I have been invited to Chennai to release a unique publication. I describe it as as unique because this book was originally published more than three decades back as a Government of India publication titled SHAH COMMISSION REPORT. But the addition of a sub-title “Lost and Regained” to the main title, and some imaginative re-editing gives it a new and significant meaning.
This new book has been compiled and edited by an old friend and Parliamentary colleague of mine, Era Sezhiyan.  Born in 1923, Sezhiyan became an ardent follower and highly trusted assistant of C.N. Annadurai, founder of the DMK. He was in Parliament from 1962 to 1984.  After the 1977 elections, he was a Founder-Member of the Janata Party and served in its National Working Committee and Parliamentary Board. This fresh compilation, re-editing and republication makes the book Sezhiyan’s signal service to history. His  PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION is a startling revelation as to what actually provoked him to go in for this sort of private republication of an official document.  He writes :

“It is part of the political history of India that in the 1977 General Election to Lok Sabha, Janata Party formed and inspired by Jaiprakash Narayan dealt a devastating defeat to Indira Gandhi and her Party. The Janata Government appointed a Commission of Inquiry with former Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Justice J.C. Shah, as its Chairman, to investigate the misuse and abuse, excesses and malpractices, committed by the Government of the 1975-77 Emergency period.                                            
The Shah Commission submitted its third and Final Report on August 6, 1978.  For taking action on the findings of the Shah Commission, the Morarji Desai Government appointed a Committee with L.P. Singh as Chairman and B.S. Raghavan as Secretary.”

Sezhiyan adds:

“When I wanted in the middle of September 2010 some background material about the declaration of June 1975 Emergency, I was astounded by the positive statements in some websites about the disappearance of the Shah Commission Report with assertive conclusion that ‘not a single copy of the Report exists in India’.

I made a close study to collect the following positive statements about withdrawal/disappearance of the Shah Commission Report in India:
(1) Wikipedia:
“The report was particularly scathing of Indira Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi and the officers belonging to civil services who helped Sanjay Gandhi.  This report was later rejected by the congress government headed by Indira Gandhi, which was back in power in 1980. The government also took the extraordinary step of recalling every published report of the Shah Commission and destroying the copies. It is now believed that not a single copy of this report exists in India.  A third and final report of the commission seems to have slipped out and is currently held by National Library of Australia.”

(The Wikipedia website stated: “This page was last modified on 14 August 2010)

(1)   Frontline April 28-May 11, 2001 – Book review made by Sukumar Muralidharan: on ‘Indira – The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi’ by Katherine Frank.

“As a family with a strong sense of its own destiny, the Nehru’s were once fastidious record-keepers. Yet during Indira Gandhi’s later tenure as Prime Minister, the family proved eager to efface certain aspects of the public record. An instance is the J.C. Shah Commission of Inquiry into political excesses during the Emergency – many hours of tape-recording of the depositions before the Commission have been lost and it is believed that not one copy of its final report has survived within the country.”

(2)   Indian Express (Mumbai) July 4, 2000 – ‘How they buried Shah Commission Report, even without an epitaph’ by Amrit Lal :

“By March 1980, a Congress government led by Indira was in power.  All the cases were slowed down, and slowly killed, either by not pursuing them or by not prosecuting the guilty’, says an officer who was part of the Commission. He adds that the government seems to have ordered to destroy all the copies of the inquiry report. The fact is the Report of the Shah Commission of Inquiry is now a rarely found document”.

(3)   “Indira – The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi’ by Katherine Frank, Harper Perennial, Edition 2005:

“Despite its serious shortcomings, the Shah Commission Report survives as a treasure trove of evidence for Sanjay Gandhi’s illicit power in the period leading up to and during the Emergency, and of the sycophancy and cowardice of numerous public servants and government officials during the same period. It is not surprising that Indira Gandhi had all the copies of the Report withdrawn as soon as she regained power in 1980”

“When Indira Gandhi returned to power, she invalidated the report and had it withdrawn from circulation. The only existing copies of the three volumes that I am aware of are at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.”

(4)  The Week July 25, 2010, ‘Probe The Commission.’
“The Shah Commission was appointed in 1977 by the Morarji Desai government. Its 500-page report, submitted in August 1978, indicted Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay, after going through more than 46,000 complaints and 100 sittings. However, the subsequent Charan Singh government did not show any interest in prosecuting those held guilty by the Commission. With Indira returning to power in 1980, the Shah Commission report was gradually buried.”

(5)   Ashok H. Desai, Former Attorney General, in his Foreword to ‘Citizens’ Rights and the Rule of Law – Essays in Memory of Justice J.C. Shah’ :

“The Shah Commission Report is a meticulous analysis made all the more effective because, without any flourishes of language, it relates, incident after incident of abuse of power during the emergency.  Unfortunately, it disappeared from Government publication sales depots under a later Government. 

One wishes that the Government of India could be bound by the same obligation as in England to supply a copy of the report of every Commission when requested to do so by a citizen.”

L.K. Advani
New Delhi19th Dec. 2010 

3 Responses to “A SIGNAL SERVICE TO HISTORY”

  1. puneeth kumar Says:December 19th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
    Dear Advaniji,
    http://www.zeenews.com/news675490.html
    Sir,This is a article about a call given by our Ex-president Mr.Abdul Kalam to all staes to emaulte the state of Gujarath in AGRICULTURE sector!
    My intention is to ask all the BJP rules states to follow the GUJARAT model on agriculture!
    Regards
    PUNEETH KUMAR
    BENGALURU
  2. asheesh63 Says:December 20th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
    Its a sorry state of affairs …The recent comments of Digvijay Singh also proves the point how bogus the congress government is in words and deeds. I am now convinced that the Congress pays more dangerous games than any other party…Its unfortunate that when Advaniji called DR Manmohan Singh as the weakest PM , people of this nation could not understand its seriousness. I think the statement by Advaniji stands now vindicted, DR Singh has learnt the art of remaining silent in the worst of crisis very well and that is how he remains close to Sonia Gandhi. But the nation pays a huge cost for this silence. food person is not good unless he proves himself in actions and deeds and not by words and silence. I think the natio needs to have a rellook at Dr. Singh from a different perspective.
  3. puneeth kumar Says: December 24th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
    Respected Advaniji,
    Congratulations to BJP for the Brastachaar Virodhi Andolan !!We have made right noise at the right time!!
    My request is while CONGRESS has tried to deviate by rasing the RADIA-ANANT KUMAR links suggested by a tainted individual,In our attempt to keep the heat on the UPA government and also expose the INACTION of the PRIME MINISTER and CONGRESS EYEWASH on action against its SCAMSTERS ,the BJP should be very careful not seen being siding with NEERA RADIA or trying to help NEERA RADIA ,this wud do great damage to BJPs campaign against corruption!
    regards
    PUNEETH
    BENGALURU

    Shah Commission Report (document on emergency excess)- Interview with Era Sezhian


    - Interview with Era Sezhian

    Uploaded on Dec 26, 2010
    Justice J C Shah, former Chief Justice of India was appointed by Morarji Desai, then Prime Minister in 1977 to examine the excesses during the draconian emergency days (1975-77). Shah Commission report was submitted to Indian Parliament in August 1978. When Indira Gandhi came back to power in 1980, she removed all the copies of the reports without any epitaph. This report is the only official document of the dark days of Indian politics. Mr Era Sezhian, a celebrated Parliamentarian has brought out this report under the title 'Shah Commission Report - Lost and regained" and the book was released on 19th December 2010 by L K Advani. In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, Mr Era Sezhian explains the circumstances under which, he undertook to release this book.

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