When janta embraced the Janata experiment

I was there as a reporter for Indian Express when the audience thronging the Pazhavangadi maidan in Thiruvananthapuram received with thundering applause the words of Asoka Mehta in the twilight of Emergency that there would be a Janata prime minister towards the end of March. It was unbelievable; but the people, tired of Emergency, preferred to believe it. Mehta’s words turned prophetic when the public address system in the Central Stadium announced the incredulous victory of the nascent Janata Party. The mellowed euphoria reached the crescendo when the announcement came that Indira Gandhi was defeated in her pocket borough. People in Kerala, who largely stood by Gandhi even during Emergency, were enjoying some sort of vicarious pleasure when they heard the defeat of the mother and son.

The Janata government, as promised by Asoka Mehta, was sworn in on March 24, 1977, with Morarji Desai as the first non-Congress prime minister of India. The spirit of 1977 was pervasive and we hailed the year as the year of freedom. For us 1947 was the year of Independence. The two words denote different ideas.

Desai became prime minister at the age of 82. After the humiliating defeat of the Congress, he was the obvious choice for the prime ministership though there were other contenders like Charan Singh.

The post had eluded him on a few occasions earlier. Writing in 1960, Frank Moraes dismissed the possibility of Desai succeeding Nehru as prime minister because of his astringent reputation. During the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi, Desai was stripped of his finance portfolio and he, in-turn, quit the Cabinet. He was truly a man of innate dignity and always spoke with genuine conviction.

In 1977 we would have loved to see Jayaprakash Narain as the prime minister but the architect of the "total revolution" was a man who belonged to a different genre. Desai, who was kept in detention during Emergency, was chosen as prime minister for a number of reasons. He was the symbol of the fight against a dictatorial regime. We thought that the nation would enter into an era of freedom and prosperity under his astute leadership. What was important for us in that decisive moment was the ignominious demise of the hated Emergency and the dawn of a new era.

The unprecedented happiness of that summer night still lingers and the memory instils the hope that there would be light at the end of every tunnel.

At a time when there were no television channels to break the news instantly, it was bliss to share the joy along with a massive crowd in an open stadium. It was a sleepless night. The loudspeakers were continuously repeating the good news.

The euphoria subsided and the joy did not last the full term. But that is a different story. What is important is the fact that 40 years ago there was a day which deserves remembrance even today.

The writer is lawyer, former MP and a political analyst