When Indira Gandhi Tried To 'Bobby Trap' Indians During Emergency

As India is debating the onslaught of emergency in 1975, which is undisputedly the darkest period in the history of the country since its independence.

For 21 months, the country with almost 80 crore people ran on the whims and fancies of two Gandhis - Indira and her political heir Sanjay Gandhi.

PM Indira Gandhi announcing the national emergency AIR studios on June 26, 1975, Indian Express

From being 'Durga' as the former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee rightly put it to someone who tarnished the sanctity of the world¡¯s largest democracy, Indira Gandhi too had her share of fears to fight and defeat. But she couldn¡¯t and thus came ¨C the emergency.

But Indira Gandhi being the statesman she knew that eventually people will prevail and she had to revoke emergency and face elections. Therefore, in the beginning of 1977, she dumped her iron fist and attitude and tried to woo people. One such incident was when she made Doordarshan screen the then blockbuster ¡®Bobby¡¯ to stop people from going to the rally called by a unified opposition.

IE

Eventually, the charm of young Dimple Kapadia and cascading innocence of Rishi Kapoor failed to stop people from attending the rally. Here is the full episode of what actually happened-

On June 25, 1975, it was Ramlila Maidan and Jai Prakash Narain popularly known as JP addressed a rally along with other opposition leaders and asked armed forces to revolt against Gandhi¡¯s government.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee with Jyoti Basu and George Fernandes

Quoting Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, JP thundered, ¡°Singhasan khali karo, ki janta aati hai (Vacate the throne, for the people, are here to claim it)¡±.

That very midnight , Emergency was declared in the country.

By January 1977, Indira realised that the masses will eventually prevail, there she decided to loosen her grip and announced elections in March. Leaders like JP, Jagjivan Ram, Morarji Desai, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Charan Singh and Chandrashekar were released. And the united opposition decided to hold a rally to garner support for elections on February 6 at Ramlila Maidan.

Indira Gandhi once again decided to not let it happen, but this time she wants to use force. She denied permission of gathering at Chandni Chowk and pushed the gathering to Ramlila Maidan.

But she wasn¡¯t convinced and then she summoned her minister for Information & Broadcasting, the profile LK Advani got after the elections under Janta Party government, VC Shukla and asked him to screen ¡®Bobby¡¯, the then cinematic obsession, the people would go crazy for.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was an ABVP member then, was then recently released from the jail and he wrote about it in his blog yesterday.

"(The then information and broadcasting minister) VC Shukla tried a petty trick. Before the rally, he announced that popular film 'Bobby' would be shown on Doordarshan at the time. But so powerful was the anti-Congress mood that people preferred to attend the rally rather than watching 'Bobby'," he recalled

Indira Gandhi addressing the crowd from Ramlila Maidan In February 1977. (The Indian Express)

But people refused to bow before the sizzling chemistry as one put it describing the cinematic cohesion between hero and heroine and a large crowd gathered at Ramlila Maidan to listen to likes of AB Vajpayee and others.

While Dimple Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor might not have liked it, Indira Gandhi too drew closer to her biggest defeat in elections that held in March 1977.