India after Indira -II

If Nehru was an ardent champion of a free Press, his daughter Indira Gandhi was quite the opposite. She had little respect for civil and political freedoms. By declaring Emergency and foisting an authoritarian regime on an unsuspecting nation on June 26, 1975, she betrayed the enormous faith that people had reposed in her. She adopted unconstitutional means to suspend all rights and liberties, restrict free speech, and arrest prominent dissidents – political opponents, trade union leaders and more than 250 journalists.

The Press was prohibited from publishing any objectionable materials or news items against the Government. All newspapers had to get news items cleared by the Censor Board prior to publication. Government officials were deputed to enforce strict compliance. The Press Council of India – an autonomous body set up in 1966 to preserve and maintain the freedom of the press – was abolished. To top it all, a ban was imposed on reporting the proceedings of both Houses of Parliament.

The Press retaliated in many different ways. The Tribune beat the censorship requirement by placing soft stories on the front page and more critical hard-hitting stories in the middle of the paper. The Indian Express was more open in its protest. It would leave blank columns in the newspaper’s pages in order to convey to the readers that these portions of the newspaper had been forcibly deleted by the Government.

This did not go down well with the Government. To make matters worse, the Government cut off electricity and water connections to the Indian Express offices in Delhi and arranged for an eviction notice to be issued by the owner of the building. However, this only made Goenka, publisher of the Indian Express, intensify his crusade against Indira Gandhi.

On the other hand, newspapers that complied with the restrictions like the Times of India and Hindustan Times were rewarded with more advertisements and preferential treatment in the allocation of imported newsprint.

It is a pity that Mrs. Gandhi failed to recognize the empowering and vital role that the Press played in a democracy by disseminating truthful information and acting as watchdogs for ensuring justice. Instead she chose to strangulate and manipulate this medium.

Press freedoms were restored only after the withdrawal of emergency in 1977. This dark period in India’s media history has had one important fallout. It has reinforced the resolve of the press to fiercely guard its freedoms.

Today the Press is rightly considered the fourth Pillar of democracy. It acts as a powerful medium that brings to the world unbiased, unadulterated, and ethically correct news. The Press has played a powerful role in drawing attention to human crises on more than one occasion. Amartya Sen, for instance, points out that famines seldom occur in democracies with a free Press as political leaders and administrators are forced to respond when the media draws their attention to the suffering of millions. Similarly, the Indian Press has actively championed environmental issues and also stood up for justice as in the case the Jessica Lall murder and many bribery scams. The Press has become a powerful and essential medium for sharing informing and stimulating public action. Casting a dark shadow on the Press or curtailing its freedoms can only be lethal for democracy.