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| Internal emergency, if imposed, will not grip people with fear: Book | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Oct 12: If internal emergency is imposed anytime in the future it will not grip people, political leaders and bureaucrats, including those in the police and the paramilitary forces, by as much fear and scare as they had been when it was clamped on the country in 1975, says veteran journalists, M.L. Kak, in his book "Jailed without crime."
People have already gone through the political experiment which the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had carried out and if the experiment was repeated it may not generate as much fear as it did 36 years ago because it was then a novel and unique exercise. M.L. Kak claims in the book.
Since the author has been a victim of misuse of emergency powers he has successfully caught, in simple words, anecdotes and incidents, the atmosphere that prevailed in the country and within the jails, especially in Hisar and in Srinagar.
It goes to the credit of the author that he has neither sermonised nor generalised events connected with his detention, journey from Hisar to Srinagar under police escort. Without lecturing on the quantum of fear that had gripped political leaders and bureaucrats the author has simply referred to a number of instances in support of his contention.
As a working journalist in Hisar he had friendly relations with officers, academicians and political leaders. Once he was detained even the senior superintendent of Police, Kalyan Rudra, who later had risen to the rank of Director General police, had refused to recognise him when he (author) was waiting outside his office for the car to arrive which was to take him to Srinagar. The same Rudra had stood up to shake hands with the author when he (author) was summoned by the Shah Commission. It goes to the credit of the author that he had not sent any complaint to the Shah Commission and the summons had been issued by the Commission on its own. Those political leaders, who were frequent visitors to the residence of the author, never paid a visit after his detention to find out about the welfare of his wife and two female kids.
While journeying, as a detainee, from Hisar to Srinagar under police escort four police officials, formed the escort, remained tight lipped throughout the travel since they had been told to be careful as they were shifting a "dangerous" guy from Hisar to Srinagar jail. The level of scare was so high that the Haryana police officials refused to convey, on phone, the news about the author's arrival in Srinagar Jail even after they had handed me over to the Jail officials in Srinagar.
No doubt Indira Gandhi was the author of the imposition of internal emergency in India she would not have got a chance to find how some political leaders, close to her, had misused the emergency powers had not the author's wife been able to get one of her applications, expressing innocence on the part of her husband, smuggled into the hands of Indira Gandhi.
When the author's wife found her applications were not forwarded to Indira Gandhi she managed to get one application delivered to Indira Gandhi through a pilot colleague of Rajiv Gandhi, Captain Kachroo. Captain Kachroo had been given the application by his daughter and son-in-law who had friendly relations with the author and his wife. And Indira Gandhi on receipt of the letter had directed the IB to conduct a fresh probe. It was on the basis of the IB, which had exonerated the author of all the charges levelled against him by the Haryana Government, that Indira wrote on the report itself "it is a case of misuse of emergency powers. Hence Kak's detention order should be revoked forthwith." And Kak was released within less than 20 hours of Indira's note after having spent 70 days in prison and one year and five months on parole.
The Book is actually the author's memoirs with emphasis on his interaction with top political leaders, including Ch. Devi Lal, who was once a Chief Minister of Haryana and Deputy Prime Minister, inside the jail. Though the author spent 70 days in jails in Hisar and later in Srinagar and was the first detainee to be released on parole and later the first to be set free he has given a graphic account of events inside the jails which have made the book interesting.
Equally interesting is the intervention of Sheikh Abdullah who wanted the then Haryana Chief Minister, Bansi Lal, to release Kak. The Sheikh had, on phone, told Bansi Lal that "our bacha is bekasoor" (our boy is innocent) but Bansi Lal had refused to revoke the detention order. He had accepted the Sheikh's suggestion that Kak be transferred to Srinagar central Jail.
The author's interaction and experiences with political leaders of various hues, with bureaucrats, saints, journalists and medical practitioners and soothsayers are quite interesting.
It is a book that gives an account of strange experiences the author had as a journalist working in different states. It is a mirror reflecting hardships the author and his family members had to face during the emergency period.
The book reflects the height of arrogance politicians in power display while getting jittery over press reports critical of their functioning. If the author was detained, without any crime, it was done because the then Haryana Chief Minister, Bansi Lal, had not cherished some of the news items sent by the author to The Tribune for which he was working as a staff correspondent.
That Bansi Lal had been misled by some officials surfaced when he and the author exchanged hot words at a function in a Haryana village.
One may blame the author for having written on an issue that is 36 years old but he has done it with a purpose. He believes that India has a generation that has been born after 1975 and they may not be knowing much about the emergency. The book, though memoirs, can enlighten this generation.
In fact the book is not a treatise on banes and benefits of emergency. It a story about many innocent people which has been told in a simple words. |
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