EMERGENCY DECLARED AFTER SIKKIM’S TAKEOVER

     Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal

Two months after Sikkim’s merger with the Indian Union a national emergency was declared in India on June 26, 1975. For the Sikkimese who wanted to voice their resentment against the merger this was an unfortunate development.

In the midnight of June 26, 1975, President, Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, passed an ordinance declaring a state of emergency under Article 352 (1) of the Constitution.  By June 27 morning, all prominent leaders of the opposition in India were under arrest under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). In Sikkim, the axe fell on Nar Bahadur Bhandari and his anti-merger colleagues - Sonam Yongda, Ashok Tsong (A.K. Subba) and P.B. Subba.

Bhandari and his colleagues were arrested under MISA and spent about a year (1976-1977) in Berhampur jail in Bihar. The Emergency lasted precisely 635 days (21 months) between 1975-1977 and about one lakh political activists were arrested during this period. Around 35,000 people were arrested under the MISA and 72,000 were put in jail under the Defence of India Regulation Act. All the fundamental rights were suspended, politicians were arrested and a heavy censorship was imposed on the media throughout India.

The Emergency was in effect from 25 June 1975 until its withdrawal on 21 March 1977.