The Emergency Quotes

“Meanwhile, the Times, London, ran a full-page advertisement on 15 August protesting the Emergency, proclaiming, ‘Today is India’s Independence Day. Don’t let the light go out on Indian Democracy.’ It was signed by 700 prominent world citizens, intellectuals, writers, artistes and MPs who had contributed towards the payment for the ad and signed the appeal.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“The National Herald, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, supported the Emergency throughout, and cautiously removed the quote ‘Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might’ from its masthead.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“Indira Gandhi suffered from a deep sense of insecurity. In sharp contrast to her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, she saw politics as primarily a struggle for power that had nothing to do with ideals or ideology.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“The obituary column in the Times of India, Bombay, regretted the demise of ‘D’Ocracy, DEM beloved husband of T. Ruth, loving father of L I Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope, Justice [who] expired on 26th June’. The obituary became a popular Emergency joke.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“The number of those in Indira Gandhi’s prisons during the Emergency far exceeded the total number jailed during the 1942 Quit India”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“Dissent was the essence of democracy,”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“Dictatorships cannot afford laughter because people may laugh at the dictator and that wouldn’t do. In all the years of Hitler, there never was a good comedy, not a good cartoon, not a parody, not a spoof.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“to”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“The rules of the game are never changed till after the game is over.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“A starlet in whom Shukla took a special interest was a curvaceous beauty called Vijay Kumari, known by her pet name, Candy. Students at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, recall how one day in August 1976 film director G.P. Sippy turned up at the institute along with Candy dressed in blue jeans, a yellow top and dark glasses. They were told that Candy, who had ‘high connections’, was to be given a place in the girls’ hostel even though she had taken none of the mandatory admission tests. N.V.K. Murthy, the then director of FTII, at first resisted her admission but was told by Sippy that it was a direct order from Shukla. Shortly afterwards Murthy was transferred to Delhi and replaced by Jagat Murari.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“The Enforcement Directorate declared he had overstayed in the USA and slapped several FERA cases on him. Swamy was pronounced a proclaimed offender and put on the Interpol list.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“The New York Times in an editorial on 30 April 1976 wrote that a grateful nation should erect a monument to Justice Khanna, who had upheld the Constitution and the rule of law, even though it had meant sacrificing his career.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“In all, eighteen judges were transferred for delivering judgments not to the government’s liking.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“On that evening at the Red Fort function, Soni and a couple of her Youth Congress activists got hold of a boy who was barely out of his teens. She ordered the others present, including the police, to thrash the boy. Virendra being Virendra felt it necessary to intervene and chide Soni: ‘Why are you beating this boy? What has he done? If he has broken any law, the police will look after it. You are not the police.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“Another hastily passed Constitutional Amendment decreed that no criminal proceedings could be instituted in any court against any person who had been President, vice president or PM.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“the Communist Party of India (CPI), which voted with the government,”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“Eminent artist M.F. Husain portrayed her as the goddess Durga astride a tiger.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“Prabhu Chawla (now a senior journalist), once an active member of the ABVP and a lecturer in a Delhi University college, got his name struck off the wanted list by swearing allegiance to Indira Gandhi’s and Sanjay’s programmes. He”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“A small gleam of light was that Additional Solicitor General Fali Nariman resigned his post.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History

“In 10 years of covering the world from Franco’s Spain to Mao’s China, I have never encountered such stringent and all encompassing censorship.”
― Coomi Kapoor, The Emergency: A Personal History