The painful memories of the Emergency are still fresh in my mind, even after a gap of 50 long years. I was picked up by police, beaten inside a lockup and thrown into a Tihar jail cell with adolescent criminals. It was a torturous journey for 19 months. Those were the dark days when most of us had almost lost hope about India getting back its trampled democracy. Before narrating my ordeal, let me state some facts. On the night of June 25, 1975, at 11:45 pm, the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed the proclamation of Emergency. It was post facto approved by the Union Cabinet the next morning at 6 am. At around the same time, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s joint secretary PN Bahl reached the newsroom of All India Radio and ordered that the 8 am morning news bulletin stands cancelled because the PM was going to address the nation at the same time. The nation then heard Indira Gandhi explaining why she imposed an Emergency. No mention was made about all top opposition leaders taken into custody. Strict censorship regulations were imposed on print media.from IndiaTV India: Google News Feed https://ift.tt/wHuWLZh
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