Censorship of newspapers, arrests of journalists and merger of news agencies is how the Indira Gandhi-led government tried to control public discourse during the 21 months of Emergency imposed exactly 50 years ago.

According to government data, more than 200 journalists, who refused to toe the government line during the Emergency proclaimed by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed at Gandhi's behest were imprisoned along with the opposition leaders.

"The government resorted to a shotgun merger of four news agencies, the Press Trust of India, the United News of India, Hindustan Samachar and Samachar Bharti, to form a single news agency 'Samachar'," said former Editor-in-Chief and CEO of PTI M K Razdan.

He recalled how news reporting was subject to stringent scrutiny and an IPS officer posted in the Press Information Bureau wielded the proverbial axe to ensure that pro-government reports made it to the newspapers.

Editors censored, news rewritten at the Press Bureau

"Journalists were forced to give laudatory coverage to Sanjay Gandhi and his family planning programme of forced sterilization of men and dismiss reports related to the opposition in a couple of paragraphs," Razdan said.

Veteran journalist S Venkat Narayan, who was the Editor of 'Onlooker' magazine during the years of Emergency, recalled how he had to send the manuscript of whatever he wished to publish to the chief censor Harry D'Penha at the Press Information Bureau for clearance.

The editors, including Kuldip Nayar of the Indian Express and K R Malkani of 'The Motherland', were arrested for publishing news reports sympathetic to Jayaprakash Narayan, the socialist leader spearheading the anti-government protests, and sensational stories on Gandhi and her son Sanjay.

Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy silenced

Navajivan Press, established by Mahatma Gandhi, saw its printing facilities confiscated, while a weekly 'Himmat' edited by Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Rajmohan Gandhi was asked to make a substantial deposit because of certain objectionable reports.

Narayan, who was working with The Sunday Times in London, drew the ire of Gandhi's information adviser H Y Sharada Prasad for reviewing a book written by Kuldip Nayar, who had likened the then prime minister dealing with her Cabinet ministers like a headmistress dealt with school kids.

Indian journalists tracked abroad, harassed on return

"When I returned to India after the three-month scholarship with The Sunday Times, I found a bunch of cops from Delhi Police waiting for me at the airport. They rummaged through my luggage to make sure that I did not bring any incriminating items in the country," Narayan recalled.

In New Delhi, the government cut-off the power supply to the newspaper offices located on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg to delay or force cancellation of the editions on June 26 and 27.

Newspapers cut off from power and ad revenue

The government also blocked advertisements to newspapers that were critical of its policies to choke them of a large chunk of revenue and manipulate them.

"There were four newspapers in Goa during the Emergency. The owners were either industrialists or those in the printing press business. All of them followed the government line," said Dharmanand Kamat, who worked with the News Services Division of All India Radio in Goa when the Emergency was announced.

 Censorship, threats, newsprint control crippled media

"Skirmishes with officials in the Press Information Bureau were an everyday affair as the newspapers sought clearances from the media censors for publishing the next day's editions," recalls A K Chakraborty, who worked as a Delhi correspondent for Nagpur-based daily 'The Hitavada'.

Several journalists faced tax evasion charges, jail term, notices to shut down the printing press and threats of eviction from government housing.

Another decision taken by the government was to regulate the supply of newsprint to media houses through the Monopoly and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, thus limiting the reach of newspapers.

"In February 1976, it enacted the Prevention of Publication of Objectionable Matter Act against the printing of 'incitement of crime and other objectionable matter'," writes Gyan Prakash in his book 'Emergency Chronicles Indira Gandhi and Democracy's Turning Point'.

"In addition, daily censorship orders were communicated over the phone to newspapers to prevent the publication of anything considered against or embarrassing to the regime," Prakash writes in the book.

The government also warned newspapers against publishing blank editorials, as the Indian Express had done in its edition of June 28, 1975 along with mass arrests carried out after the imposition of the Emergency.

Government-controlled ‘Samachar’ downplayed protests

Razdan recalled how 'Samachar' formed by the forced merger of four news agencies reported on events during the Emergency.

"Reporters had to be careful not to annoy the government. For instance, there was a big rally by Jayaprakash Narayan at the Ramlila ground in Delhi. 'Samachar' had to dismiss it in a few paragraphs, while many newspapers gave it a prominent display," Razdan said.

He recalled the Shah Commission of Inquiry that went into the excesses committed during the Emergency grilled officials at the Press Information Bureau for their acts of censorship of the media.

It was L K Advani, the Information and Broadcasting minister in Morarji Desai's government, who ensured the revival of the four news agencies.

"We gained our Independence again," Razdan recalled.

Narayan, the editor of the Onlooker magazine based in Mumbai during the Emergency, recalled a press conference addressed by Advani during his visit to the financial capital.

"Advani's famous quote 'when Mrs Gandhi asked the media to bend, it crawled' was a response to a question I had asked him during his visit to Mumbai," Narayan said.

Kamat remembers asking Gandhi the question on the need to impose Emergency when she visited Goa for campaigning during the 1980 Lok Sabha elections.

Indira Gandhi justified emergency as Constitutional duty

"I have followed the Constitution of India. There is a provision to impose internal and external Emergency. When a person is giving a call to the police and the army to revolt against the government orders, as the chief of the government it is my duty to exercise the powers at my disposal under the Constitution," Kamat recalled Gandhi having told him.

"No ruler can tolerate a call to the army and the police to revolt against the establishment," Gandhi said, according to Kamat.

Published on June 24, 2025