Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Within a month he invoked the emergency powers for ‘the protection of the people and the state’. He restricted personal liberty, free speech, fundamental rights and imposed various restrictions on the right to privacy. The ostensible reason for proclamation of emergency was a Communist conspiracy to burn down governmental buildings. The pretext was that a day before the proclamation of emergency there was a fire at the Reich Stag. Much later the Nuremberg trials established that the fire had been engineered to provide a false pretext. Indira ji also proclaimed the Emergency in India on 26th June 1975. She claimed that JP was leading an agitation where Armed Forces were being asked to defy illegal orders. She therefore suspended all fundamental rights including the right to life and liberty. She imposed censorship on the Press, compromised judicial independence. Her Attorney General pleaded before the Supreme Court that in the absence of the right to life and liberty a detente could be killed in prison and he had no recourse. A pliable Supreme Court accepted this argument. Suspension of democracy, abrogation of civil liberties, detention of political opponents, suspension of democratic activity, abandonment of free Press, absence of judicial independence and vestige of power in one person were features of Hitler’s regime. Each step had inspired Indira ji’s internal Emergency. There was one basic difference between the two. Hitler did not promote a dynasty because he did not have any one to promote. Arun Jaitley
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 07:14:59 +0000
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