A blot on democracy: Why we must not forget lessons from the Emergency

In a democracy, a free press does not only fulfil the function of educating people and offering them a range of ideological choices and opinions

June 25 marks the 50th anniversary of a 21-month period in independent India’s history of authoritarian excesses, activated by a constitutional suspension of civil liberties and the collective failure of institutional checks and balances. The Emergency was rubber-stamped by the President, the Cabinet, and Parliament under the specious threat of external aggression and internal disturbances to India, and given heft by an infamous Supreme Court Bench judgment that overrode the protections of habeas corpus. Together, these retreats from democratic values by those that should have defended them enabled the regime under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to detain opponents indefinitely and