(Edited excerpts of former CPM, MP A.K. Gopalan’s speech in the Lok Sabha on July 21, 1975, clarifying the party’s stand on the Emergency)
I rise to speak in an extraordinary and most distressing situation in which 34 MPs are not here, not of their own volition, but because they have been detained without trial, and Parliament itself has been reduced to a farce and an object of contempt by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her party. I myself had been arrested and kept in jail for one week, and Jyotirmoy Bosu and Noorul Huda. I am an old man who cannot speak loudly now. I was released and both of them were kept inside the jail. The reasons are very clear. I am not afraid of jails because during the last 45 years, for 17 years, I have been in jail. But I am only sorry for the inhuman treatment meted out to me for two days inside the jail. I went on hunger strike. I sent a telegram to the speaker and then only the condition was changed.
I am sorry to say that as a Congressman who once fought for the freedom of this country and who courted arrest and suffered so much, I had been treated in this way. I was released only two days back. I know the reason. What about the 2,000 or 3,000 of my comrades who are inside jail today? Why were only [E.M.S.] Namboodiripad and I released? It is to show the world that no Marxist or leftist parties or opposition party members are arrested, but it is only the reactionaries who are arrested and who are responsible for all these things.
This is a session of Parliament to transact the government business, mainly, to ratify the fresh declaration of Emergency by the president on June 26 under the plea of internal security to the country, and the opposition is being prevented from playing its role: Why?
This sudden declaration is not because of a real threat to internal security but because of the judgment of the Allahabad High Court, the verdict against the Congress in the Gujarat elections, and the refusal by Gandhi to step down from the office of prime minister till the final verdict of the Supreme Court, in the context of rising disillusionment and discontent of the people with the ruling party under Gandhi’s leadership for turning the economy into a shambles, making the rich richer and the poor poorer in pursuit of the bankrupt path of capitalist development.
On behalf of the CPM, I totally oppose the new declaration of Emergency and its ratification in this House. Many leaders of the opposition as well as 39 MPs, including some Congress leaders, are inside jail. We cannot betray the interests of the people and give our assent to the obliteration of all vestiges of democracy in India.
How is this butchery of democracy being sought to be justified? Indira Gandhi has claimed that it is to defeat the right reaction and also the so-called left extremists. All this manoeuvring is meant only to deceive the public opinion in the country and also abroad. This is the only purpose of the high-powered propaganda campaign about the so-called conspiracy and coup and much is being made of a call to the police and army not to obey illegal orders. Against this high-powered hoax of a campaign, what is the reality? It is too naive to expect the people to believe that these organisations with no mass base have suddenly become threats to internal security that can be met only by the imposition of the Emergency. The politics and ideology of these parties have to be fought and defeated politically and ideologically. If they are involved in criminal activities, they should be proceeded against under normal laws.
The measures taken by the government in the wake of the declaration of the Emergency unmistakably show that the thrust is against the people. Whatever democratic rights were available to the people have been completely obliterated. Chapter III of the Constitution enshrining the fundamental rights has become a dead letter. Articles 14 and 22 have been suspended. No criticism of the government or the Congress, however mild, is allowed to be published. No news of exploitation of the people by vested interests, of workers by the capitalists, of peasants and agricultural workers, etc, which may contain even a remote criticism of the government, is allowed. No movements of the workers, peasants, agricultural labourers, etc can take place under the plea of obstruction to production.
What the Emergency amounts to is suppression of the democratic forces. Who will believe that by suppressing the popular forces who are fighting against the monopolists and landlords, by suppressing their agitations and by denying them all democratic rights, Gandhi is fighting right reaction?
It is unfortunate that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and some other communist parties have allowed themselves to be misled by the facade of attack against right reaction and do not see that the real thrust of these measures is against the people fighting for a better existence.
(Courtesy : The Indian Express)
I am sorry to say that as a Congressman who once fought for the freedom of this country and who courted arrest and suffered so much, I had been treated in this way. I was released only two days back. I know the reason. What about the 2,000 or 3,000 of my comrades who are inside jail today? Why were only [E.M.S.] Namboodiripad and I released? It is to show the world that no Marxist or leftist parties or opposition party members are arrested, but it is only the reactionaries who are arrested and who are responsible for all these things.
This is a session of Parliament to transact the government business, mainly, to ratify the fresh declaration of Emergency by the president on June 26 under the plea of internal security to the country, and the opposition is being prevented from playing its role: Why?
This sudden declaration is not because of a real threat to internal security but because of the judgment of the Allahabad High Court, the verdict against the Congress in the Gujarat elections, and the refusal by Gandhi to step down from the office of prime minister till the final verdict of the Supreme Court, in the context of rising disillusionment and discontent of the people with the ruling party under Gandhi’s leadership for turning the economy into a shambles, making the rich richer and the poor poorer in pursuit of the bankrupt path of capitalist development.
On behalf of the CPM, I totally oppose the new declaration of Emergency and its ratification in this House. Many leaders of the opposition as well as 39 MPs, including some Congress leaders, are inside jail. We cannot betray the interests of the people and give our assent to the obliteration of all vestiges of democracy in India.
How is this butchery of democracy being sought to be justified? Indira Gandhi has claimed that it is to defeat the right reaction and also the so-called left extremists. All this manoeuvring is meant only to deceive the public opinion in the country and also abroad. This is the only purpose of the high-powered propaganda campaign about the so-called conspiracy and coup and much is being made of a call to the police and army not to obey illegal orders. Against this high-powered hoax of a campaign, what is the reality? It is too naive to expect the people to believe that these organisations with no mass base have suddenly become threats to internal security that can be met only by the imposition of the Emergency. The politics and ideology of these parties have to be fought and defeated politically and ideologically. If they are involved in criminal activities, they should be proceeded against under normal laws.
The measures taken by the government in the wake of the declaration of the Emergency unmistakably show that the thrust is against the people. Whatever democratic rights were available to the people have been completely obliterated. Chapter III of the Constitution enshrining the fundamental rights has become a dead letter. Articles 14 and 22 have been suspended. No criticism of the government or the Congress, however mild, is allowed to be published. No news of exploitation of the people by vested interests, of workers by the capitalists, of peasants and agricultural workers, etc, which may contain even a remote criticism of the government, is allowed. No movements of the workers, peasants, agricultural labourers, etc can take place under the plea of obstruction to production.
What the Emergency amounts to is suppression of the democratic forces. Who will believe that by suppressing the popular forces who are fighting against the monopolists and landlords, by suppressing their agitations and by denying them all democratic rights, Gandhi is fighting right reaction?
It is unfortunate that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and some other communist parties have allowed themselves to be misled by the facade of attack against right reaction and do not see that the real thrust of these measures is against the people fighting for a better existence.
(Courtesy : The Indian Express)
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