For, during the Emergency, sterilising humans had almost become an obsession with the Prime Minister's son and thence the government. Most of the information was about where the police was going to lay a naka for catching men to emasculate. In the plains of North India, most information was being carried much as it had been done during the Indian Mutiny of 1857: by word of mouth. For, in those poverty-struck days without television, telephonic connectivity and few newspapers, people were starved of information. But at least it whetted the public's appetite for information on what was going on in the then regal courts of Delhi. As with most quickies, it was short on details, high on rhetoric, low on logic and the author made no bones about the axe that he was trying to grind. Kuldip Nayar's version was called The Judgement. The end of the Emergency allowed for an opportunity to journalists to write many quickies. The subsequent elections resulted in the quondam ruling party being almost entirely wiped out. A year and a half later, in January 1977, the government withdrew the Emergency as suddenly much as it had imposed it. A façade of legality was maintained but soon enough the subordination of the rule of law to the executive was used by many in power to settle private scores and line their own pockets. The people looked on with mixed feelings. All those who had been charged with nurturing democracy and freedom - politicians, government officials, judges, and journalists - collectively contributed to the demise of democracy. This book, of four chapters, documents the manner in which that coup was organised, nurtured and finally ended.ĭemocracy that the people had begun to take for granted was curtailed by the imposition of the Emergency in June 1975.

A new noun entered the Indian political vocabulary as a result: Emergency. June 26, 1975, the Government of India organised a coup against the people of India. This review was first published on Get your book reviews published on this site. The Indira/ Sanjay combine killed the spirit of the Congress to such an extent that sycophancy became the norm as opposed to the exception.Ī fantastic record of Indira’s India in the 70’s.

If you think the Congress leaders of today are sycophantic (towards that magnificent buffoon Rahul Gandhi), you must read Emergency Retold to understand where the seeds of this sycophancy were sown. Except for certain parts where Nayar lends voice to lengthy diatribes by leaders against the Emergency, the narrative is taut and thriller-like. I came across Nayar’s book and picked it up, wanting to know what had really happened. Trains, buses used to be on time.” That and the undeniable fact that Indira Gandhi had induced the Emergency to satiate her hunger for power, had been my narrow viewpoint on the Emergency. I remember asking my mother if she remembered the Emergency in the 70’s and she told me, “ Yes, a lot of people went to jail but corruption went away.

Emergency retold by kuldip nayar