A Question of Answers: Memories of the dark days of Emergency rule

More than 25 years have passed since Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency in June 1975, a fortnight after the Allahabad High Court set aside her election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian Parliament.

And another 25 years have passed since the Emergency was lifted in January 1977, and in the elections that followed in March, Indira Gandhi and the Congress were booted out of office.

But the trauma of the Emergency, when the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution were suspended, and Indira Gandhi's younger son Sanjay Gandhi and his coterie played havoc in the governance of the country, still lingers.

B.N. Tandon, a 1951 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, was joint secretary at the Prime Minister's Secretariat - as the prime minister's office (PMO) was then known.

From November 1974 to July 1976, when he left the PMS, Tandon maintained a diary of events and his impressions of the days leading up to the imposition of the Emergency, and about the dark days of the Emergency. He kept the diary in Hindi, his mother-tongue, and told himself that he would not publish it till 25 years have lapsed.

The English translation of the diary was done by senior journalist T.C.A. Srinivasa-Raghavan, whose father was a colleague of Tandon in Indira Gandhi's secretariat. It was published on October 20, much ahead of the Hindi version, and has raised eyebrows in Congress circles, but has pleased the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Home Minister and veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani read the book from cover to cover, and conveyed to Tandon that he enjoyed reading the book. Former law minister and the BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley, too, has enjoyed reading the book.

What is not known is whether Advani, Jaitley and other BJP leaders are drawing the right lessons from Tandon's diaries - the nemesis that awaits those who are bent on destroying democracy, and whether they would pass on the lessons to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the leaders of the extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

In an interview with Gulf News in his spacious house at Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi on Saturday night, Tandon, who is secretary of the K.K. Birla Foundation, spoke about his impressions of Indira Gandhi whom he used to meet every day for six years, and what compelled him to keep the diary.

Excerpts from the interview:

Parsa: A senior officer in your position would have written the diary in English. Why did you choose to write in Hindi?
Tandon: It has been my policy that I would use Hindi, my mother-tongue, whenever and wherever I can. And the writing of the diary was obviously one place that I could use Hindi, and I did.

Were you ever tempted to publish the diary in the intervening years?
There was no question of publishing the diary until my self-imposed secrecy period of 25 years had elapsed. It is a promise I made to myself even as I was writing the diary.

The diary begins in November 1974, when there was a distinct change in the atmosphere, and you anticipated trouble. Indira Gandhi's transformation from a popular democratic leader to that of a dictatorial prime minister begins in this period. What was she like from 1969 to 1974? Was she more friendly and open?
From 1969 to 1974, she was definitely a different person. She was friendly and open. And she would listen to the advice rendered by the officers in the Prime Minister's Secretariat. But after 1975, the centre of power shifted from the prime minister's office to the prime minister's house.

Sanjay Gandhi and his adviser R.K. Dhawan began to call the shots, and she depended on them more than ever. For example, the list of secretaries for promotion had to be sent to Sanjay Gandhi for approval.

Were you tempted to resign at any moment during that period?
There was no question of resigning. I was an officer with the government. But if I did not write the diary, perhaps I would have gone mad. The events I witnessed were so painful, that I needed to share it with someone. I could not have done that. The writing of the diary helped me to remain sane.

Do you think that if you had kept a diary from 1969 onwards, then the reader could have watched the change of Indira Gandhi from the benign leader to that of the dictator?
When I entered the PM's secretariat, my predecessor told me to keep the diary. But I knew that I would not be able to because of the pressure of work. But in 1974, when things began to change, and I knew that major changes are going to take place. I felt compelled to keep the diary.

I realised that the official documents would never reflect the atmosphere of fear and suspicion of those days, and there was need for an eyewitness account. I was a student of history at the university, and I knew that it was my historical obligation to write down what I saw and felt in the PMO those days.

You met Indira Gandhi almost every day during the seven years you were in the PMO. What is your personal impression of Indira Gandhi as a person?
She was very good. She was warm and polite. Even when she disagreed with what I had to say, she never violated the norms of decent behaviour. She never lost her temper. And there was also the personal touch.

I never used to attend the state dinners, and once Indira Gandhi observed that she never saw me or my wife at the dinners. So I forced myself to attend one with my wife. The next morning as soon she came to the office, she sent for me and told me, "Your wife is a beautiful person."