Shah Commission: Requiem for Mrs. Gandhi

The third and final report of the Shah Commission unravels the tangled web of falsehood, deception and misuse of power during the Emergency by the cohorts of Mrs Gandhi, and a submissive bureaucracy. Strings were pulled, young boys sterilized, houses demolished, over 25,000 public servants retired prematurely and over a lakh were detained under MISA and DIR. Leading commentator B.G. Verghese examines this long list of indictments and warns that the country is "fast moving back to 1974".The publication of the third and final report of the Shah Commission brings to a close the monumental labours of a supremely important Commission of Inquiry that has given expression to the democratic conscience of the nation. Justice J. C. Shah and all those who assisted him under the direction of the Secretary to the Commission, P.R. Rajgopal, are to be congratulated on having completed the very complex and delicate task entrusted to them with exemplary rectitude, speed and patience.They have cut through a tangled web of falsehood, perjury, evasion, defiance, malice and obstruction to expose Mrs Gandhi's Emergency for what it was worth: a fraud on the Constitution and the usurpation and misuse of power by a bunch of tyrants and bullies who equated their self-aggrandizement with the national interest.The final report, like the two preceding volumes, makes painful reading. The case of Lawrence Fernandes "highlights not merely the illegal detention and torture of an individual by the police, but the subversion of an entire system including the judicial process by senior and responsible Government officers .who fabricated public records, gave false testimony and otherwise acted in a manner unbecoming of the high and responsible offices they held".Cases Examined: Six cases of the arbitrary exercise of power in Haryana were examined. Five of them relate to the detention of innocent persons who had incurred the displeasure of Bansi Lal who functioned like a "medieval despot". The sixth case pertains to an extraordinary police assault on (Jttawar village in Gurgaon district to subdue the Meos who were resisting forcible sterilization. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Although Bansi Lal had by this time moved to Delhi as defence minister, the Inspector-General of Police found it difficult to take action against his officers "many of whom were maintaining direct links with 'high-ups'". No surprise this, after the Commission noted "with amazement the statement made by B. D. Gupta to the effect that even as chief minister, he stood in constant fear of being detained under M1SA by Bansi Lal".The reckless disregard of laws, established procedures, administrative norms and proprieties witnessed during the Emergency required the removal or intimidation of honest and independent officials. The Commission reports that as many as 25,862 public servants and employees in public sector undertakings were prematurely retired during this period while 8,367 officials were superseded. Reviews undertaken after March 1977 have resulted in the reinstatement of 14,187 officials and the reversal of at least 72 supersession orders.MISA was used as an engine of oppression to silence all opposition and circumvent the law. "It appears that the police in most of the states considered the amended MISA as an easy way out in dealing with the persons against whom they could not secure convictions under the normal laws." As many as 34,988 persons were detained under MISA and 75,818 persons under DIR during the Emergency. The Commission finds "many of the detention orders prima facie, legally unsound, and motivated by considerations divorced from those that were in the minds of the original framers of MISA". Central directives to avoid misuse and use MISA with care "remained as ineffective as the "Papal bull against the Comet'". It finds it "difficult to accept that in the atmosphere then prevailing in the country, any state Government would have dared to ignore or bypass the advice or instructions of the prime minister or the Government of India unless they felt assured that they would not be taken to task for this lapse. Instructions for stricter enforcement of the Emergency were taken far more seriously and at times acted upon with an urgency almost bordering on frenzy than the advice to use MISA 'sparingly, and with care.".Restricting Rights: Indeed, the Commission notes that the Centre directed the state governments to obtain the advice of the Central Government before releasing any MISA detenu. "There were cases in which the Central Government did not agree to release the detenus even though the State Government felt that the detentions were no longer necessary. By these directives, the Central Government in an executive manner, restricted the legal right of the state governments to revoke the orders of detention passed under MISA".The implementation of the family planning programme is carefully documented by the Commission. The voluntary nature of the programme gave way to coercion through a series of "incentives and disincentives". The cafeteria approach was abandoned in favour of sterilization, and highly inflated targets were proclaimed and sought to be achieved by means of pressure. According to the information collated by the Commission, 548 complaints regarding the sterilization of unmarried persons were received and there were reports of 1,774 deaths following sterilization. Ineligible persons were forcibly operated upon to make up prescribed targets of achievement. The entire programme was finally abandoned after February 18, 1977, with the withdrawal of "disincentives" on the instructions of Mrs Gandhi who signed a note stating "we are receiving letters that unless the orders issued by several (state) governmentspublic agencies making sterilization a condition for availing facilities in the case of those with two or more children are withdrawn immediately, people will not believe the announcements (that no compulsion is m-tended)manifesto". The critical factor was the approaching election.Press Censorship: Dr Karan Singh, the then Minister for Health and Family Planning, made a statement before the Commission. He said: "I must admit that the extent of such coercion was not revealed until after the Emergency was lifted, mainly because of the self-defeating censorship of of the press that was enforced at that time. It will remain a matter of grave sorrow and personal regret that in the name of family planning, Indian citizens, specially those belonging to the weaker sections of society, should have been humiliated in such a barbaric fashion." How did this happen? Dr Karan Singh goes on to answer: "As the Commission is no doubt aware, at that time an extra-constitutional centre of power was operating in the country, and Chief ministers who owed special allegiance to this centre vied with each other in raising their sterilization targets in order to gain favour. Once the targets were raised, the whole force of Government machinery in these states was thrust into use to achieve them, and in the process an atmosphere of fear and coercion became widespread. Once again it was proved that howsoever desirable the ends may be, wrong means can lead to nothing but disaster."The story of demolitions during the Emergency makes equally sad reading. The Turkman Gate incident and the demolitions in Delhi were discussed in Volume Two. The Final Report notes that just as in the case of the Delhi demolitions, "the position in other states. was that they were undertaken to please Sanjay Gandhi". The Commission cites a telex message by Uttar Pradesh's Resident Commissioner in Delhi to an official in Lucknow in the following terms: "As desired by the Chief Minister, I called upon Sanjay Gandhi and showed him the various plans for the urban development of Agra. Gandhi appreciated the programme and expressed the view that with immediate effect the state Government should endeavour to remove cattle from the streets, unauthorized structures and beggars .within the next six months, so that during the cold weather, which is the tourist season, the city presents a cleaner appearance. He desires action on the same lines for Varanasi."Demolition Wave: A wave of demolitions followed in several states - cruel, arbitrary, destructive, often without adequate notice, and in violation of established procedures. In Delhi 140,000 tenements were razed to the ground and 700,000 citizens bulldozed into the rain, the cold and the trans-Yamuna marsh. Most of the 27 resettlement colonies built in Delhi are planned slums, abominably designed, blighted cities of the poor that will remain a blot on the Capital for decades. Sanjay Gandhi also advocated sterilization of beggars and many such operations were carried out in Uttar Pradesh under the anti-beggary law. Sterilization and demolitions were weapons employed during the Emergency to punish those contemptuously regarded as the undeserving poor. Far from heralding an opening to the left as some innocents thought in the early days of the Emergency, the truth as some aptly quipped was, that Mrs Gandhi's socialism, of which Sanjay was the prime instrument and flowering, was no more than "a little left of self-interest". The Commission however, does not probe deeper into the social aspects and implications of some of the excesses it inquired into. The Commission criticizes but accepts the plea of helplessness tempered by expressions of regret put forward by some. But it scorns the attempt of other officials and politicians to justify their indefensible conduct: "They could not display the courage to face the truth then; they have not the character to face the truth now and to own up to their past wrongs." It goes on to make a number of positive suggestions which must be immediately acted upon. Justice Shah - monumental laboursFirstlv, some mechanism must be devised "to ensure that enactments which confer on public servants powers exercisable on their subjective satisfaction and which interfere with the normal lives and activities of the citizen are subjected to periodical review so that the spirit and motivation behind all such legislations are fully and completely honoured". Secondly, records admitted to have been fabricated and concocted must be removed from the files so that they can never be misused again. Thirdly, since "commandments of good conduct, good behaviour and morality got muted when self-preservation was at stake it is necessary to provide certain institutional safeguards to look after the interests of the entire run of officials, and particularly those who are involved at the decision-making levels of the Government in the states and at the Centre".Correctives Suggested: The Commission rightly emphasizes the need to focus on the Emergency as a whole rather than on individual excesses, and to find out honestly what went wrong and how such a situation is to be avoided in the future. Not every-thing that happened was a mistake. scrupulous and ambitious officers sought to advance their own interests in collusion with their political masters although the sole commitment" of a civil servant can, and must, only be to the law and the Constitution. There is need for a clear redefinition of the relationship between a minister and his secretary and to review how lower functionaries like R. K. Dhawan, Navin Chawla and others could wield enormous powers merely by claiming to speak in the name of others, higher up. Power and responsibility must go together. More open government and less secrecy is suggested as one corrective. The Commission cautions against viewing the Emergency merely as a series of excesses. What happened was "the subversion of a system of administration" which calls for a total system overhaul in a manner whereby officials function "in an atmosphere free from the fear of the consequences of their lawful actions in a spirit calculated to promote the integrity and welfare of the nation and the rule of law". Finally, "in the view of the Commission, the manner in which Sanjay Gandhi functioned in the public affairs of Delhi in particular, is the single greatest act of excess committed" for he became "an irresponsible and unconstitutional centre of power".Evil Lust: Those who pitifully shout the praises of Mrs Gandhi and would "save India with Indira" or unite with her significantly-named Indira Congress must realize that the Emergency personfied a lie, an evil and a dynastic lust for feudal power and that Mrs Gandhi personified the Emergency. They must also know that Sanjay remains his mother's shadow. Mrs Gandhi is never returning to power as she is totally discredited and distrusted especially by those near enough to see and experience the working of a politically deranged mind. The crowds she gathers signify a protest against the dithering, and disappointing performance of the Janata.Mrs Gandhi's case on why and how she proclaimed the Emergency has been shown up on hard evidence to have been based on untruths, subterfuge and personal ambition. The Shah Commission's Report is a requiem for Mrs Gandhi. She may well be personally consigned to limbo, but the Janata seems determined to follow her there by its growing irrelevance and loss of authority, coherence and credibility. The country is fast moving back to 1974 and unless the situation is soon redeemed, some manifestations of 1984 may be nearer than we think.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Apr 29, 2014--- ENDS ---

Download App

Subscribe to India Today Print + Digital. Your First Month Is On Us. ₹299/month thereafter. Cancel anytime.

Shah Commission: Requiem for Mrs. Gandhi

The third and final report of the Shah Commission unravels the tangled web of falsehood, deception and misuse of power during the Emergency by the cohorts of Mrs Gandhi, and a submissive bureaucracy.

PUBLICATIONS

TELEVISION

EVENTS

RADIO

GAMING

USEFUL LINKS

PRINTING

WELFARE

DISTRIBUTION

SYNDICATIONS

WEBSITES

EDUCATION