By The Way -
When declaration of much maligned Emergency happened this day in 1975, I was waiting for my MA final result. Since I had not entered public life during the entire period of Emergency being in force, I have not much to say about this except that I do recall a small incident during the early days. A friend and classmate took me to the AG office Shimla, where he was to meet some acquaintance. Not the time when you could freely move about and barge into any room for any purpose, after a brief enquiry the receptionist at the entrance called the concerned person to the reception on intercom. The conversation of my friend with the person over, the latter asked the receptionist to allow him to go out for a while as he wanted to entertain the visitors with a cup of tea. But the receptionist did not budge, perhaps bound by the instructions from the authorities. Though he was courteous enough to offer tea at the reception itself. However, the person we met was apologetic that we had to leave without a cup of tea.
From common man's perspective, the period was a boon as in Government offices, staff was available 10 to 5. Red tape had vanished and the files had developed wheels.
Emergency had happened also as a sequel to a call for 'total revolution ' from the likes of Jayaprakash Narayan. Interesting Vinoba Bhave supported the emergency calling it ' अनुशासन पर्व ', the other dignitary supporting it was the author Khushwant Singh.
