LK Advani’s Blog

भारतीय राजनीतिक इतिहास के विद्यार्थियों में यह सदैव विवाद का विषय रहेगा कि देश में आपातकाल 1975 की 25 जून या 26 जून में से कब लागू किया गया।

तथ्य यह है कि राष्ट्रपति ने आपातकाल सम्बन्धी उद्धोषणा पर 25 जून की देर रात्रि को हस्ताक्षर किए। लेकिन इसके बारे में केबिनेट को 26 जून को सुबह 6 बजे सूचित किया गया। देश को इस बारे में 26 जून को प्रात: 8 बजे आल इण्डिया रेडियो पर स्वयं इंदिरा गांधी के प्रसारण से पता चला।

पूर्व के अपने एक ब्लॉग में मैने प्रधानमंत्री कार्यालय के एक वरिष्ठ अधिकारी बिशन टंडन की पुस्तक से कुछ उठ्ठत किया था। उन महत्वपूर्ण दिनों की घटनाओं Click to Read More

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It will always remain a matter of dispute among students of Indian political history as to whether the Emergency clamped on the country in 1975 was on June 25 or on June 26.

Fact is that the President signed the Emergency Proclamation late night on June 25. But the Cabinet was informed about this only at 6.00 AM on June 26. The country came to know about it from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi herself on June 26 in an All India Radio broadcast made at 8.00 A.M.

In an earlier blog I have quoted from a book by a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office Bishan Tandon. About the events of those crucial days there cannot be a more authentic record than this book titled PMO DIARY. The Foreword to this book has been written by renowned British constitutional pundit Granville Austin.

Austin writes :

“This insider’s account of events, coupled with Mr. Tandon’s analysis of their meaning, would be of little or no value to us had he then not had a reputation as a very accurate reporter - a reputation he possesses today. Well informed political analysts may now occasionally disagree with Mr. Tandon’s views of the time, but the accuracy of his account seems above reproach.”

**

Here are some excerpts from Bishan Tandon’s diary of those days which would give readers unfamiliar with events Click to Read More

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नाजी जर्मनी के बारे में विलियम शिरर की ‘द राइज एण्ड फॉल ऑफ थर्ड राइक’ मैंने पहली बार तब पढ़ी जब मैं कालेज का विद्यार्थी था।

जून 1975 में आपातकाल की घोषणा के कुछ समय बाद ही मुझे इस प्रसिध्द पुस्तक की पुरानी प्रति हाथ लगी। इसने मुझे आपातकाल विरोधी भूमिगत कार्यकर्ताओं के आंदोलन हेतु ‘ए टेल ऑफ टू इमरजेंन्सीस’ (दो आपातकालों की गाथा) शीर्षक से एक पेम्फलेट लिखने को प्रोत्साहित किया।

यह पेम्फलेट न केवल हमारे लोगों में वितरित किया गया अपितु उस वर्ष नई दिल्ली में हुए कॉमनवेल्थ पार्लियामेंटरी कांफ्रेंस में आए प्रतिनिधियों Click to Read More

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I was a college student when I had first read William Shirer’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’ about Nazi Germany.

Shortly after the imposition of the Emergency in June 1975, I happened to lay my hands on an old copy of this famous book. It prompted me to write a pamphlet for our Anti- emergency movement’s underground activists, titled “A Tale of Two Emergencies”.

The pamphlet was circulated not only among our own people but also among delegates who had come for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference held in New Delhi that year.

Today, on June 25, I feel it would be worthwhile reproducing some essential parts of this pamphlet here :

A TALE OF TWO EMERGENCIES
[Written in Bangalore Central Jail some time in September, 1975]

William Shirer’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’ is regarded as a monumental, definitive work on the history of Nazi Germany. Going through it a second time these days, I have been greatly struck by the remarkable, but disturbing similarity between the methodology of Adolf Hitler to make himself an absolute dictator and the steps being taken by Indira Gandhi here to decimate and destroy Indian democracy.

When the Weimar Constitution was adopted in 1919, it was hailed as the “most Click to Read More

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पिछले कुछ दर्शकों में मैं अनेक पुस्तक लोकार्पण कार्यक्रमों में गया हूं। लेकिन गत् सप्ताह मुंबई में हुआ कार्यक्रम सचमुच में अद्भुत था।

पुस्तक की विषय वस्तु अनोखी थी और उसी तरह वह व्यक्ति भी जिसने इस पुस्तक को जन्म दिया।

मैं नाना चुडासमा को सत्तर के दशक के प्रारम्भ से तब से जानता हूं जब मेरे मित्र और गुजरात में पार्टी के सहयोगी स्वर्गीय मकरन्द देसाई ने उनसे मेरा परिचय कराया था। तब से अक्सर अनेक बार हम मिले और परस्पर सम्मान हमको एक-दूसरे से बांधे रखे हुए है। विश्वविद्यालय का कन्वोकेशन हॉल उस दिन खचाखच भरा था। हॉल इतना भरा था कि उस शाम मेरे साथ गई मेरी Click to Read More

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In the past few decades I have attended many book-release functions. But the one I participated in at Mumbai last week was truly unique.

The nature of the book was unique, and so was the individual who had given birth to the book.

I have known Nana Chudasama since the early seventies when my friend and party colleague late Makarand Desai of Gujarat introduced me to him. Since then we have been meeting often enough to bind us together in ties of mutual esteem. The University Convocation Hall in the Fort Area of Mumbai was jampacked that day. The cream of the city was present, both in the Hall, as well as on the dais. The Hall was so crowded this evening that my daughter Pratibha who had accompanied me to the function had to remain standing for nearly half an hour.

The book has been titled History on a Banner. The well known writer Shobha De has commented, “There have been just two significant voices that have accurately reflected the hopes and frustrations of the ‘aam aadmi’ in Mumbai – R.K. Laxman’s and Nana Chudasama’s. R.K. Laxman is famous because of his cartoons. Nana is famous because of his banners.”

For over three decades now, for occasional visitors to Mumbai like me, a drive along Marine Drive has been as much an attraction as Click to Read More

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आज पूरी दुनिया में भारत को सम्मान सिर्फ इसलिए नहीं मिलता कि उसे एक उभरती हुई बड़ी आर्थिक शक्ति माना जाता है अपितु इसलिए भी मिलता है कि विकासशील देशों में से भारत ही एकमात्र देश है जहां लोकतंत्र जीवंत और सशक्त ढंग से चल रहा है।

हालांकि, देश के भीतर अनेकों लोग इस बात से अनजान हैं कि जून, 1975 में हम एक ऐसी स्थिति में आ गए थे जहां सत्तारुढ़ दल बहुदलीय लोकतंत्र को दफनाकर एकदलीय लोकतंत्र स्थापित करना चाहता था।इस मास के अपने ब्लॉगों में, मैं विशेषरूप से वह सब स्मरण करने की कोशिश कर रहा हूं जो 26 जून, 1975 को देश पर थोपे गए आपातकाल के समय घटित हुआ।

देश को स्वतंत्र भारत के इतिहास Click to Read More

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Today, India commands respect in the world, not only because it is perceived as an emerging economic power, but also because from among the developing countries, it is the only one that has been functioning as a vibrant and vigorous democracy.

Within the country, however, many are blissfully unaware that in June 1975 we came very close to a situation when the ruling party wanted to bury multi-party democracy and introduce a single party set up. In my blogs this month, therefore, I have been consciously trying to recall the happenings of the Emergency inflicted on the country on 26th June, 1975.

The country needs to be intensely alive to this phase of independent India’s history. Allowing this phase to be forgotten would be tantamount to doing a grave disservice to Democracy!

As I pointed out last week two events that took place on 12th June, 1975 led to the Emergency. And the Emergency brought to the surface the innate distrust some leaders of the ruling party have always had for democracy. Smt. Gandhi herself once said those days: “The nation is more important than democracy”.

The National Herald, the daily paper in Delhi started by Pandit Nehru, wrote an editorial then praising the one party system in African states like Tanzania as being no less virile than the multi-party system. The paper observed:

“The Westminster model need not be the best model, and some African states Click to Read More

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आज मैं पार्टी की दो-दिवसीय राष्ट्रीय कार्यकारिणी की बैठक के लिए पटना में हूं। पार्टी अध्यक्ष श्री नितिन गडकरी द्वारा गठित नई राष्ट्रीय कार्यकारिणी की यह पहली बैठक होगी।

कार्यकारिणी में बहुत से पहली बार बने सदस्यों के लिए आज की तिथि अपने आप में महत्वपूर्ण होगी। लेकिन जो 1947 से देश की स्वतंत्रता के समय से घटनाक्रम को देखते आ रहे हैं, उनके लिए आज अविस्मरणीय महत्व का ऐतिहासिक दिन है।

भारत के राजनीतिक इतिहास में 12 जून एक अत्यन्त महत्वपूर्ण तिथि है । यह वह तिथि है जिसे देश को नहीं भूलना चाहिए। पैंतीस वर्ष पूर्व ठीक इसी दिन दो ऐसी घटनाएं घटीं, जिनके Click to Read More

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I am in Patna today for the two-day session of the party’s National Executive. This will be the first meeting of the new National Executive named by President Nitin Gadkari.

For the host of young first timers in the Executive today would be an important date for that reason itself. But those keeping track of the events in independent India since 1947, today is a historical date of landmark significance.

In the annals of India’s political history June 12 is a very important date. It is a date the country must not forget.

Exactly on this date, thirty five years ago, two events occurred which if the Establishment’s reaction to those events had stabilised, and their intentions had succeeded, Indian democracy would have been completely annihilated. Today, we would have been living in a different India. It would certainly not have been an India which is respected immensely because it has been a successful democracy.

I am recalling today 12th June, 1975. I have in front of me a publication titled PMO DIARY : Prelude to the Emergency by B.N. Tandon. I have known the author and his family closely for over four decades. The family lived next door to my residence in Pandara Park. Bishan Tandon has been a senior IAS official who in Mrs. Gandhi’s regime was Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office. When I was Information and Broadcasting Minister in Shri Morarji Click to Read More

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