NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Political Science Part 2 Chapter 6

The reasons for the mid-term elections in 1980 were as follows:

• Janata party did not have a proper direction, leadership and a common programme.
• It could not bring a major change in policies pursued by the Congress.
• There was a split in Janata Party and the government led by Morarji Desai which lost its majority in less than 18 months.
• Charan Singh government was formed because of the support of Congress party which later withdrew its support which resulted in resignation of Charan Singh government within four months.

All the above mentioned reasons led midterm elections of 1980, which defeated Janata Party and again Congress led by Indira Gandhi came back to power by winning 353 seats.

The Shah commission was appointed in May 1977 by Janata Party government which was headed by J.C. Shah who was a retired chief justice of Supreme Court of India. He looked into the matters of:

1. Allegations of abuse of authority, excesses and malpractices as well as actions taken in the name of emergency proclaimed on 25 June 1975.
2. The Commission worked to examine various evidences to give testimonies to even Indira Gandhi to appear before Commission, but she refused to answer any of their questions.

Findings of Shah Commission:
(a) It found many ‘excesses’ that had been committed during Emergency.
(b) Under preventive detention laws nearly one Lakh eleven thousand people had been arrested.
(c) Press censorship had taken place without any proper legal sanctions.
(d) Even the General Manager of Delhi Power Supply Corporation was given verbal orders from the officers of the Lt. Governor of Delhi to cut electricity to all the newspapers press at 2 A.M. on 26 June 1975.

The reasons given by the Government for declaring a National Emergency:

• It was announced in response of the petition filed by Raj Narain to declare Indira Gandhi’s election invalid.
• On June 25, 1975, the government declared the threat of internal disturbances to invoke Article 352 of constitution.
• Article 352 declared emergency on the grounds of either internal or external disturbances.
• The government decided a grave crisis to be arisen to proclaim emergency to bring law and order, restore effectiveness and put into practice pro-poor welfare programmes.
• The President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad proclaimed emergency which became the most controversial episode in Indian Politics.

The 1977 elections were evolved as a shock to everyone as Congress party was defeated for the very first time and opposition party came into power:

1. It adopted the slogan ‘Save democracy’ against obligation of emergency earlier.
2. It campaigned non- democratic character of rule which provided various excesses.
3. It highlighted the preventive detention and press censorship to favour public opinion.
4. Janata Party also ensured not to divide non-Congress votes.
5. Middle section of north India was moving away from Congress for whom Janata Party became a platform.
6. Hence, elections of 1977 emerged due to many other factors instead of emergency only.

Effects on Civil Liberties for Citizens:

• The government made wide scale arrests under the preventive detention law.
• All the arrested political persons could not challenge their arrest even under Habeas Corpus petition.
• Despite of filing many petitions the government claimed it not to be necessary to be inform the ground of arrest to the arrested persons.
• In April 1976, it was proved that the government could take away citizen’s right to life and liberty by overruling high courts under Supreme Court and accept government’s plea.

Impact on Relationship between the Executive and Judiciary:
1. The Parliament introduced many new changes in the Constitution which made an amendment that declared that elections of Prime Minister, President and Vice-President could not be challenged in the court.
2. The forty-second amendment (42nd) was also passed which brought a series of changes in the constitution like duration of legislatures, postponing elections by one year during an emergency.

Functioning of Mass Media:

1. Press censorship took place which banned the freedom of press and newspapers and they were supposed to take prior approval before they published any material
2. Protests, strikes and public demonstrations were also banned.
3. Various fundamental rights were also suspended including even Right to move to court for reinstatement of Fundamental Rights.
4. Kannada writer Shivarama Karanth was awarded Padma Bhushan and Hindi writer Fanish warnath Tlenu was Padmashri but both returned their awards in protest against suspension of democracy.
5. Newspapers like Indian Express, and the statesman also protested against censorship by leaving blank spaces wherever the news items were censored.

Working of Police and Bureaucracy:

• The government made wide scale arrests under the preventive detention law.
• All the arrested political persons could not challenge their arrest even under Habeas Corpus petition.
• Despite of filing many petitions the government claimed it not to be necessary to be inform the ground of arrest to the arrested persons.
• In April 1976, it was proved that the government could take away citizen’s right to life and liberty by overruling high courts under Supreme Court and accept government’s plea.
• The Parliament introduced many new changes in the Constitution which made an amendment that declared that elections of Prime Minister, President and Vice-President could not be challenged in the court.
• The forty-second amendment (42nd) was also passed which brought a series of changes in the constitution like duration of legislatures, postponing elections by one year during an emergency.

Effect of imposition of Emergency on the party system in India:

1. Due to absolute majority to party in power, leadership even dared to suspend democratic process.
2. The constitution makers presumed to be abide by laws and democratic orders, hence, wide and open ended powers were given to the government during emergency.
3. A tension and differences arose between institution based democracy and democracy based on spontaneous popular participation.
4. It was attributed to incapability of party system to incorporate aspirations of the people.
5. For the first time, opposition parties came together to form a new party ‘Janata Party’ not to divide the non-Congress votes.
6. 1977 elections brought an end to one party dominance and created coalition government.

Read the passage and answer the questions below:
Indian democracy was never so close to a two-party system as it was during the 1977 elections. However, the next few years saw a complete change. Soon after its defeat, the Indian National Congress split into two groups The Janata Party also went through major convulsions David Butler, Ashok Lahiri and Prannoy Roy. — Partha Chatterjee

The imposition of emergency in 1977 and political crisis made the party system in India look like a two-party system.

Two parties existed in 1977 were Congress and non-Congress parties to be described as close to two party system because it ended the one party dominance and emerged Janata Party, umbrella of non-Congress parties.

Split in Congress: Congress split on the issues of presidential elections in 1969. Split in Janata Party: On tensions among three leaders Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram for leadership in 1979.