Bombay During Emergency

On the night of 26th June 1975, the President of India upon a proposal from the then Prime Mister Indira Gandhi declared internal emergency under article 352(1) of the Constitution under which the civil liberties of the citizens were curbed and the political opponents were arrested in large numbers followed by draconian measures like slum demolitions and forced mass-sterilisations drives and censoring of press. The proclamation of emergency removed protections of rights to freedom under Article 19 of the constitution and suspended the right to move any court to enforce rights under Articles 14, 21, and 22. The emergency was finally withdrawn after 19 months on 21st March 1977.

Ma- harashtra issued an ordinance in October 1975, which became an act in November 1975, to remove “unauthorized” structures. The new law equipped the state with summary procedures and prevented judicial intervention.

The Maharash- tra government launched “Operation Beggars” to extern an es- timated 75,000 from Bombay and to deploy them in the “devel- opment” work of irrigation projects.