Death of democracy mourned by his …

According to the Constitution, during the Emergency, the Central Government has special powers. During the Emergency, the Government did the following:

• Protests and agitations by government employees were banned.
• Media were strictly controlled.
• Fundamental Rights of the citizens were suspended. Even the courts could not enforce article 32.
• A number of preventive arrests of leaders were made. By doing all these things, the democratic set-up was seriously shaken.

The media could publish only things the government approved. Protesting against this, Newspapers like Indian Express and Statesman published their papers leaving some columns blank. Many journalists were under preventive detention. Many Opposition leaders were also kept in preventive custody. The argument for keeping them in jail was preventing any possible violence. Many leaders went underground. The suspension of article 32 was like closing the doors of justice on people. People could not even file ‘Habeas Corpus’. Later article 42 was also amended. We can easily say that the Emergency adversely affected the people in many ways.