IB’s defence of Emergency: ‘The country has been saved’

[thestringshredder]

Two weeks after Emergency was imposed by the Indira Gandhi government on June 25, 1975, the Intelligence Bureau prepared an internal note with a detailed defence of the imposition, claiming it "saved" the country from from "chaos and anarchy". The points it stressed matched those used by the Congress government to defend its stance in Parliament.

The 34-page note, dated July 11, 1975 and titled " The Threat of Grave Internal Disturbance; The Need for the Proclamation of an Emergency", was part of home ministry documents pertaining to the Emergency period accessed by The Indian Express from the National Archives of India. It blamed the opposition parties for creating a situation that necessitated an emergency and claimed the government had, in fact, "saved the country from widespread internal disorder".

"In the light of what had transpired in Gujarat and Bihar and the 'mini-revolts' staged by these political parties, their trade unions and student fronts in the last one-and-a-half years and particularly the anarchy and disorder that was sought to be unleashed during the last railway strike, one could imagine the chaos and anarchy [into] which the country would have been thrown if these plans had not been scotched effectively by the proclamation of the Emergency and the arrest and detention of these leaders," the note says. "By this action, the country has been saved from widespread internal disorder and a situation in which the administration would have been put to the very greatest stress leading to serious setbacks in development and meeting the pressing needs of the people."

The note begins by talking about the "anarchy" in Gujarat, followed by Bihar. "The public have no doubt seen the outlines of the 'strategy for Total Revolution' and the havoc wrought by its implementation in Gujarat and Bihar in the last 18 months. But because of the very nature of the clandestine and sinister plans of the opposition, the people are not aware of the enormity of the dimensions of the... anarchy and disorder planned by these forces," the documents states, adding the non-CPI opposition parties were trying to "capture power".

Link - IB’s defence of Emergency: ‘The country has been saved’ - Indian Express