Kochi: As the dark memories of the Emergency become the focal point of the political discourse in the country on its 49th anniversary, pro-RSS/BJP victims of the police excesses during the ‘censorship days’ have only one demand to Prime Minister Narendra Modi – declare their fight against dictatorship as the second freedom struggle.
The Emergency Victims Association, a Kerala-based collective of people who took part in the anti-Emergency protests as per the instructions of the RSS and Jan Sangh, the early form of the BJP, placed their demand before the central government during the first term of Modi, but they haven’t received any reply yet.
Several state governments have launched pension schemes for the Emergency victims. The Association is, however, least bothered about pensions. Its demand is more of a question of morality.
The Association reiterated its demand at a meeting held here on Wednesday to commemorate their struggle. It has urged the state BJP leadership to press the central government for its cause. The association has also moved the Kerala High Court with the same demand, and the case is still pending.
“Pension is not our demand. We didn’t protest for pensions. In 1947 we attained political freedom. However, during the Emergency, our civil liberties were cut. In my view, the fight for civil liberties is more important than the fight for political freedom. Hence, we demand the central government to declare it as the second freedom struggle,” P Sundaram, vice-president, of the Emergency Victims Association, told Onmanorama.
He said the Association expected the BJP-led government at the Centre to consider their request. “Only a BJP government can take such a decision,” he added. Sundaram said the Association members will accept pensions if the government implements it. “Now, different state governments are giving pensions to Emergency victims. Ideally, it should uniformly come from the Central government,” he said.
Sundaram, 69, who has been associated with the RSS for decades, was a local leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh during the Emergency. He was arrested twice, and assaulted by the police for taking part in the protests. The association has also demanded that Emergency should be included in the school curriculum across the country.
Lalitha Prakash, who was also part of the anti-Emergency protests along with her brothers, said it was important to declare the movement as the second freedom struggle to educate the upcoming generations about the importance of the event.
Hailing from a family of staunch RSS supporters, Lalitha was assigned to post anti-Emergency materials published by the RSS-backed Kurukshetra Prakashan to various places. Though she escaped police radar, her five brothers and a nephew were arrested and detained during the Emergency. Her brother Purushothaman was arrested thrice and brutally assaulted, she said.
BJP silent
Neither the central nor the state BJP leadership has not made any official response to the association’s demand yet. A state BJP leader told Onmanorama that the demand is fair but the party has not discussed the matter at any point.
“The RSS and the Jan Sangh spearheaded the anti-Emergency protests and all of their leaders were arrested. Hence such a demand should have come from the RSS too. If the RSS and the BJP leaderships come out with such a resolution, it would not be difficult for the government to take a decision. But had they wanted something like that to happen, they could have taken a decision long ago,” the BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.
Sundaram said it is out of the style of RSS to place such a demand though its stance has always been that the fight against Emergency amounted to the second freedom struggle.
On June 25, 1975, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, a Congress stalwart, imposed Emergency in the country, suspending civil liberties, jailing opposition leaders and dissidents and effecting press censorship.
Thousands of members of the CPM, the Naxalite movement, the breakaway Congress (Organisation), Jana Sangh, RSS, All India Muslim League, and Jamaat-e-Islami in Kerala were jailed under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and Defence of India Regulation Act – laws that allowed the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government to make preventive detentions and arrests without a warrant.
The Emergency Fighters Association, a collective of Left-leaning victims, had also demanded that victims of police excesses during the Emergency be granted freedom fighters status, and the Emergency be included in the school curriculum.