RSS swayamsevaks honour the soldiers of democracy who were interned under the dreaded MISA during the Emergency
As many as 50 fighters, who challenged the dictatorial misrule of Smt Indira Gandhi during the infamous Emergency (1975-77), were felicitated at a public function by the RSS swayamsevaks. RSS National Executive Member Shri Ashok Beri and Kshetra Sanghachalak Dr Darshan Lal Arora were also present on the occasion.
It was Meerut Prant Sanghachalak Shri Surya Prakash Tonk who took the initiative to contact and honour those who were interned under the dreaded Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and Defence of India Rules (DIR). After much toil and labour, a list of about 55 surviving Emergency detainees from Meerut City was chalked out. All were contacted but 50 of them graced the occasion.
The largely attended function saw the heroes and heard them sharing their experiences, some of them harrowing and extremely moving. Shri Pradeep Kansal, now retired from Punjab National Bank, was a student of LL.B. when he joined the satyagrah in December 1975 inside the premises of Meerut College where he studied. While he was addressing the students gathered around him, a posse of policemen arrested him and took him to the Lal Kurti Police Station in Meerut Cantt. He was tortured there through the whole night by about a dozen policemen. He was beaten up mercilessly by sticks and boots. Some policemen jumped over his body again and again after laying him on the floor. Twice he vomitted blood and fell unconscious. The Police was asking for the whereabouts of Jyotiji, the then Vibhag Pracharak who was nicknamed Kuldeep or KD in short. Even after 42 years, Pradeepji’s toe is nail-less. Pradeepji recalled that when he was taken to the magistrate’s court the next day, his cloths could not be put on his body as it had swollen so much in response to the beating. He was kept lying in the police jeep outside the court and the magistrate sent him to judicial custody without even seeing him. Shri Ravindra Nadar and Shri Arun Vashishth recalled how their parental property was made subject of attachment proceedings in order to exert pressure on them to desist from underground working and instead get arrested.
Shri Janmejay Chauhan’s residence was a centre of RSS activities during those hard days. He too went to jail after satyagrah. Shri Harishchandra narrated the story of his arrest. Shri Rajendra Agrawal, the present Member of the Lok Sabha from Meerut, said it was not only the satyagrahis who were tortured, even members of their families had sometimes to undergo persecution. Shri Vasudev Sharma (89) had experiences of half a dozen incarcerations beginning from 1948.
Shri Rakesh Jain, organising secretary of the Rashtriya Sewa Bharati, went into the background of Emergency. He said 800 swayamsevaks from Meerut offered satyagrah and were sent to various jails. Shri Ashok Beri said the swayamsevaks were in the forefront of the movement against anti-people, anti-democracy, fascist measure. During the period the RSS kept the moral of it’s swayamsevaks high, whether they were inside or outside the jail.
Dr Darshan Lal Arora, said 78,000 swayamsevaks were imprisoned under the draconian MISA and DIR. They formed more than 75 per cent of the total of detainees throughout the nation. Those felicitated included master Ranjit Singh, now aged 98; two siblings Sudhakar and Padmakar (the latter became a pracharak of the RSS during that challenging period); Amarjeet, Rajesh Gupta, Sarvesh Nandan and Ram Bharose Lal, now a vibhag sanghchalak.
Shri Ashok Beri also inaugurated the official social media (twitter handle, facebook and WhatsApp) platforms of Rashtodaya, a mammoth event to be organised in Meerut on 25 February 2018. —Ajay Mittal
Courtesy: Organiser
