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We want to make people so powerful that no govt dares to suppress them: Morarji Desai

In 1978, Morarji Desai addressed an election rally ahead of Assembly elections in Assam, condemning the Emergency while promising a fearless environment if the Janata Party is voted to power.

I have come here today for one specific purpose: your Assembly election. This election is important not only for you but for the entire country.

You have seen how the country was governed over the past five or six years, especially from the beginning of 1975 until 1977, when the Emergency was imposed upon the nation. Democracy was destroyed—almost wiped out. It barely survived in name. That is why, after all, elections had to be held.

But the oppression of the people was so severe that no one could speak. Anyone who raised their voice against the government was crushed—thrown into jail or hounded until their lives were ruined. There were countless such cases. More than a lakh people were imprisoned. Yet not a word appeared in the newspapers. No one knew who had been arrested or where they had been taken.

The ruling party did little except defame the Opposition. Whatever went wrong over those five or six years, whatever the government failed to do, the blame was placed on the Opposition. They even claimed that the Emergency had been imposed because the Opposition wanted to incite violence. That was the excuse they offered.

But the fact remains: the Emergency was imposed.

That is why the then Prime Minister’s election was set aside by the Allahabad High Court. The unlawful acts she had committed could not be defended under the law. She was in a position where she would have had to step down.

Instead of doing so, the Emergency was imposed. People like us were imprisoned, and arbitrary laws were pushed through Parliament in violation of our Constitution.

No one in the Opposition was allowed to speak. Newspapers could not publish freely. Restrictions were imposed on the press. Laws were enacted so that no complaint could be taken to court. Even the authority of the courts was taken away.

The country was reduced to such fear, and yet they claimed they had established peace. But what use is the peace of a cremation ground? The peace with which you are sitting here today—that is real peace. But peace maintained by lathis, bullets and repression is the peace of the cremation ground. It is not the peace of free human beings. It is not life.

Then, when elections were announced in January last year, the Janata Party came into being. They had to release us. Even then, they did not release everyone at once; people were released little by little, in batches. Fairness was never their way.

But the moment we were released, we came together. Within a week we formed the Janata Party. Five different political parties—parties that had worked separately, fought one another and opposed one another—came together and became one party: the Janata Party.

The people had been urging us for three or four years: “Act wisely. As long as the Opposition remains divided, it cannot defeat the government, and the country will continue to suffer. For the sake of the nation, unite your thinking. Those who believe in democracy should come together as one party.”

That is how one party came into being. Then, after the election, on 1 May, it was formally constituted. The five constituent parties dissolved themselves into it. They ceased to exist as separate organisations.

Today there is no BLD, no Jana Sangh, no Congress (O), no Socialist Party and no CFD. There is only the Janata Party.

Because it was created at the people’s urging, the Janata Party resolved to set aside its separate ideologies and follow the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi. Thirty years of experience had taught us that once we strayed from that path, the country suffered greatly. India continued to decline.

So we returned to Gandhiji’s path. The people gave the Janata Party an overwhelming mandate and entrusted it with the responsibility of governing the country.

As soon as we came to power, we removed every restriction that had been imposed on the people, on the press and on the courts. Everyone became free once again.

Today newspapers are free to write whatever they wish. At times they write things that are unfair or even incorrect. But we do not interfere. A free press must have the freedom to write what it believes. If it acts irresponsibly, let the people judge it.

In this way, we restored everyone’s freedom. We also changed our approach to development, because unless the condition of the people improves, the country cannot progress.

Nearly 80 per cent of our people live in villages. Unless their lives improve, India can never truly prosper.

To improve the condition of the country, we decided to give much greater attention to agriculture—to expand irrigation, ensure the supply of fertilisers, provide better seeds, and increase agricultural production in every possible way.

We also decided to promote village industries—small industries suited to rural areas, producing goods that people need—so that everyone would have work and no one would remain unemployed. That is the course we have taken.

After we came to power at the Centre, Congress had been decisively defeated in several states—completely wiped out in some, and reduced by nearly 90 per cent in others. It was clear that the people had lost confidence in those governments. That is why we held fresh elections.

Their five-year term had already ended, but by taking advantage of the Emergency they had extended it to six years. Had they not done so, elections would have been held there earlier.

We did not hold elections in Assam because the Janata Party had not received comparable support here in the Lok Sabha election. Out of fourteen seats, we won only four. Although there were many allegations of corruption against the state ministry, we still did not call elections.

We have decided that unless there is clear evidence, we do not want to dismiss any elected government.

Our principle is that states should be governed through the representatives chosen by the people. If a government fails and has to be removed, President’s Rule should be imposed only to conduct fresh elections—not for governing the state—and certainly not for more than two months.

In the past, President’s........

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