Class 12 Political Science Book 2 Chapter 6 The Crisis of Democratic Order Short Notes

• Since 1967: Indira Gandhi a towering leader with tremendous popularity; party
  competition bitter and polarised; the split in the Congress had sharpened divisions between
  her and her opponents.
• The Congress said the Supreme Court’s stand was against the principles of democracy and
  parliamentary supremacy, and that the Court was a conservative institution obstructing
  pro-poor welfare programmes.
• The opposition parties said politics was becoming too personalised and
  governmental authority was being converted into personal authority.

Both of these are views the chapter attributes. Write them as “the Congress
took the position that…” and “the opposition parties felt that…”, never as flat statements of
fact.

• garibi hatao was the Congress slogan of the 1971 elections; conditions did not
  improve much after 1971-72.
• Bangladesh crisis: about eight million people crossed the East Pakistan border into
  India.
• War with Pakistan, after which the U.S. government stopped all aid to India.
• Oil prices increased manifold; prices rose 23 per cent in 1973 and 30 per cent in
  1974.
• Industrial growth low, rural unemployment very high; the government froze the
  salaries of its employees.
• Monsoons failed in 1972-1973; food grain output declined by 8 per cent.

He agreed to lead the Bihar movement only if it would (1) remain non-violent and
(2) not limit itself to Bihar. The second condition is why the movement took on a national
character.

1975: he led a peoples’ march to Parliament, one of the largest political rallies ever
held in the capital, supported by the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the Congress (O), the Bharatiya
Lok Dal, the Socialist Party and others, who projected him as an alternative to Indira Gandhi.
The chapter also records that there were many criticisms of his ideas and of the politics of
mass agitations.

• “Sampoorna Kranti ab nara hai, bhavi itihas hamara hai” [With Total Revolution as our
  motto, the future belongs to us]. Your book captions this a slogan of the Bihar movement,
  1974.
• “Indira is India, India is Indira”. Captioned a slogan given by D. K. Barooah,
  President of the Congress, 1974.

These two are commonly asked as a matching pair. The trap is the attribution, not the
words: the first is the opposition’s slogan, the second the Congress President’s.

• R. K. Laxman, The Times of India, 26 June 1975. Your book says it appeared a few days
  before the declaration of Emergency and captures the sense of impending political crisis, and that
  the man behind the chair is D. K. Barooah, the Congress President.
• R. K. Laxman, The Times of India, 29 March 1977. A cartoonist’s reading of who won and
  what was defeated in the 1977 election. Those standing with the common man include Jagjivan Ram,
  Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee.
• R. K. Laxman, 16 April 1974 (the Bihar movement) and 13 November 1979, plus one by
  Atanu Roy / India Today, on the Janata Party’s faction fight, which your book says
  “inspired many cartoons at that time”.
• The oath-taking photograph, 1977: the first non-Congress government at the centre. In the
  picture are Jayaprakash Narayan, J. B. Kriplani, Morarji Desai and Atal Behari
  Vajpayee.

Atal Behari Vajpayee appears only in these captions. He was not one of
the three contenders for Prime Minister in 1977; those were Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan
Ram.

• Called by the National Coordination Committee for Railwaymen’s Struggle, led by
  George Fernandes.
• Demands related to bonus and service conditions. Began May 1974, by the employees
  of India’s largest public sector undertaking.
• Raised the issues of workers’ rights and whether employees of essential services
  should adopt measures like strikes.
• Government declared it illegal, arrested many leaders, deployed the territorial
  army to protect railway tracks.
• Called off after twenty days, without any settlement.

1. Can Parliament abridge Fundamental Rights? The Supreme Court said it cannot.
2. Can Parliament curtail the right to property by amendment? The Court said Parliament
   cannot amend the Constitution in such a manner that rights are curtailed.
3. Parliament amended the Constitution to say it can abridge Fundamental Rights for giving
   effect to Directive Principles. The Supreme Court rejected this provision also.

This culminated in the Kesavananda Bharati case and the doctrine of basic
features.

• 1973, the Chief Justice. A vacancy arose immediately after the Kesavananda Bharati
  decision. The practice had been to appoint the senior-most judge, but the government
  set aside the seniority of three judges and appointed Justice A. N. Ray. It became
  politically controversial because all three superseded judges had given rulings against the
  stand of the government.
• The climax: the High Court ruling declaring Indira Gandhi’s election invalid.

Your book spells the case both ways, “Kesavananda” and “Keshavananda”. Either
is acceptable.

1. 12 June 1975. Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court
   declares Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha invalid, on an election petition filed
   by Raj Narain, a socialist leader who had contested against her in 1971. The ground: she had
   used the services of government servants in her election campaign. Effect: legally she was
   no more an MP, and could not remain Prime Minister unless re-elected as an MP within six
   months.
2. 24 June 1975. The Supreme Court grants a partial stay: till her appeal was
   decided she could remain an MP but could not take part in the proceedings of the Lok
   Sabha.
3. 25 June 1975. Opposition parties led by Jayaprakash Narayan hold a massive demonstration
   at Delhi’s Ramlila grounds. He announces a nationwide satyagraha and asks the army,
   the police and government employees not to obey “illegal and immoral orders”.
4. 25 June 1975. The government declares a threat of internal disturbances and invokes
   Article 352. That night the Prime Minister recommends the Emergency to President
   Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who issues the proclamation immediately.
5. After midnight. The electricity to all the major newspaper offices is
   disconnected.
6. Early morning, 26 June. A large number of opposition leaders and workers are
   arrested.
7. 6 a.m., 26 June. The Cabinet is informed at a special meeting, after all this
   had taken place.
8. 27 June 1975. The editorial page of Nai Dunia appears with the space for
   the editorial left blank, the editorial having been censored. Later, leaving blank space
   was also banned.

1. The federal distribution of powers remains practically suspended and all powers are
   concentrated in the hands of the union government.
2. The government gets the power to curtail or restrict all or any of the Fundamental
   Rights.

Note “all or any“. That is why Exercise Question 1(b), which says all
fundamental rights were suspended, is incorrect.

• The agitation stopped abruptly; strikes were banned; many opposition leaders jailed; the
  political situation became very quiet though tense.
• Freedom of the Press suspended: prior approval for all material to be published, which
  is press censorship.
• Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Jamait-e-Islami banned, apprehending
  social and communal disharmony.
• Protests, strikes and public agitations disallowed.
• The various Fundamental Rights of citizens stood suspended, including the right to
  move the Court for restoring them.
• Extensive use of preventive detention and large scale arrests; no habeas
  corpus challenge; the government claimed it need not even inform arrested persons of the
  reasons and grounds of their arrest.

Several High Courts held that the courts could still entertain a writ of habeas corpus.
In April 1976 the constitution bench of the Supreme Court over-ruled the High Courts and accepted
the government’s plea. It meant the government could take away the citizen’s right to life
and liberty. The chapter’s verdict: the judgment closed the doors of judiciary for the
citizens and is regarded as one of the most controversial judgments of the Supreme
Court.

• Political workers not arrested in the first wave went ‘underground’.
• The Indian Express and the Statesman left blank spaces where news items had
  been censored.
• The Seminar and the Mainstream chose to close down rather than submit to
  censorship.
• Many journalists were arrested for writing against the Emergency.
• Underground newsletters and leaflets published to bypass censorship.
• Kannada writer Shivarama Karanth (Padma Bhushan) and Hindi writer
  Fanishwarnath Renu (Padma Shri) returned their awards in protest against the
  suspension of democracy.

Do not leave out the chapter’s own closing qualifier: “By and large, though, such
open acts of defiance and resistance were rare.” It is part of the balance the chapter
keeps.

• Times of India, 1975, anonymous. It announced the death of “D. E. M. O’Cracy, mourned
  by his wife T. Ruth, his son L. I. Bertie, and his daughters Faith, Hope and Justice.” Read
  aloud, the names are democracy, truth, liberty, faith, hope and justice.
• The Times, London, 15 August 1975, by the ‘Free JP Campaign’. “Today is India’s
  Independence Day…Don’t Let the Lights Go Out on India’s Democracy”.

• An amendment declaring that the elections of the Prime Minister, President and
  Vice-President could not be challenged in the Court.
• The forty-second amendment: the duration of the legislatures extended from five to
  six years, and intended to be of a permanent nature, not just for the Emergency.
• During an Emergency, elections can be postponed by one year. So after 1971, elections
  needed to be held only in 1978 instead of 1976.

“The Emergency at once brought out both the weaknesses and the strengths of India’s
democracy.” Every answer on the lessons should keep this two-sided shape.

1. It is extremely difficult to do away with democracy in India. Many observers think India
   ceased to be democratic during the Emergency, but normal democratic functioning resumed within a
   short span of time.
2. Ambiguities in the Constitution have been rectified. An ‘internal’ Emergency can now
   be proclaimed only on the grounds of ‘armed rebellion’, and the advice to the President must be
   given in writing by the Union Cabinet.
3. Awareness of civil liberties. The Courts have taken an active role after the Emergency
   in protecting civil liberties, and many civil liberties organisations came up after this
   experience.

The Emergency was implemented through the police and the administration. These institutions
could not function independently; they were turned into political instruments of the
ruling party, and according to the Shah Commission Report, the administration and the police
became vulnerable to political pressures. “This problem did not vanish after the
Emergency.”

This one clause is the only mention of the Shah Commission in your chapter.
Quote it exactly.

• Congress lost every constituency in: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and the
  Punjab.
• Congress won only one seat each in: Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
• Congress retained many seats in: Maharashtra, Gujarat and Orissa, and virtually swept
  through the southern States.

Why the difference? Two reasons, both the chapter’s own. (1) The impact of the
Emergency was not felt equally in all the States: the forced relocation and displacements, and the
forced sterilisations, were mostly concentrated in the northern States. (2) More
importantly, the middle castes from north India were beginning to move away from the Congress
and the Janata party became a platform for these sections. Hence: “In this sense, the elections of
1977 were not merely about the Emergency.”

• Formed on the eve of the 1977 elections by the major opposition parties; accepted the
  leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, who became the popular symbol of restoration of
  democracy. Some Congress leaders opposed to the Emergency joined it.
• Congress for Democracy, formed under Jagjivan Ram, later merged with
  it.
• Three-way contest for PM: Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram. Morarji Desai
  became Prime Minister, but the power struggle did not end.
• Its critics felt it lacked direction, leadership, and a common programme, and it
  could not bring about a fundamental change in policies from those pursued by the Congress.
• Morarji Desai lost his majority in less than 28 months. Charan Singh formed a
  government on the assurance of Congress support, which was withdrawn, so it lasted just about 4
  months.

The lesson: “governments that are seen to be unstable and quarrelsome are severely
punished by the voters”, alongside the 1977 lesson that “governments that are perceived to be
anti-democratic are severely punished by the voters”.

1. Since 1969 the Congress had been shedding its umbrella party character, and now
   claimed to be the only socialist and pro-poor party.
2. Its success came to depend on sharp social and ideological divisions and the appeal
   of one leader, Indira Gandhi.
3. The opposition turned to ‘non-Congressism’ and to avoiding a division of non-Congress
   votes, which played a major role in the elections of 1977.
4. The welfare of the backward castes began to dominate politics since 1977. Northern
   States elected non-Congress governments in the 1977 Assembly elections in which backward
   caste leaders played an important role.
5. Reservations for ‘other backward classes’ became very controversial in Bihar, and
   following this the Mandal Commission was appointed by the Janata party government at the
   centre.

• A constitutional crisis, because it had its origins in the constitutional battle over
  the jurisdiction of the Parliament and the judiciary.
• A political crisis, because the party in power had an absolute majority and yet its
  leadership decided to suspend the democratic process.
• The Constitution’s makers had trusted that parties would abide by democratic norms even under
  Emergency, which is why the powers given were wide and open ended. “These were abused
  during the Emergency.”
• The chapter’s own verdict: “This political crisis was more serious than the constitutional
  crisis.”

The role and extent of mass protests in a parliamentary democracy: a tension between
institution-based democracy and democracy based on spontaneous popular participation.
The chapter attributes this tension to the inability of the party system to incorporate the
aspirations of the people. The next chapter takes it up through debates around regional
identity.

Year 2005. Director and screenplay: Sudhir Mishra, screenplay with Ruchi Narain and
Shivkumar Subramaniam. Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Shiney Ahuja, Chitrangada Singh.

Siddharth, Vikram and Geeta are three spirited and socially engaged students who graduate
from Delhi and follow different paths. Siddharth supports the revolutionary ideology of social
transformation; Vikram is in favour of achieving success in life, whatever the cost. It is set in
the backdrop of the seventies.