Emergency:  the black spot on Indian democracy and a sign of Authoritarian despotism

It was 40 years ago on June 25,1975 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad to sign the emergency proclamation. It really symbolises that ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. The draconian measures taken by her gives a very important lesson to democracy. In the words of Alfred Emanuel Smith: ‘All the ills of democracy can be  cured by more democracy’. After the British era, declaring EMERGENCY was another such step to deprive the people of the basic fundamental rights.  

As said by Benjamin Disraeli that ‘change is inevitable in a progressive country. Change is constant.’ Change is continuously taking place in our society, in democracy and it is upto us to be on vigil and safeguard our inalienable rights. Its high time that we get a humane governance for upholding the democratic values. Only a humanist state can give a human touch to democracy. Government’s function should be like a ‘trustee’of power and it shoud be accountable to people rather than moving towards authoritarian despotism . For safeguarding democratic values its necessary that people should remain constantly vigilant so that this type of incident never repeats itself. Thus, only high moral character of the people as well as leaders can make a democracy successful. 

  We must induce democracy in our everyday lives and ensure democritization.  Democracy should be safe from the ill effects of demagogue. The recent activities of muslim personal law is the offshoot of such demagogue. We must ensure that democracy is safeguarded from such evils.