The period between June 25, 1975, and March 21, 1977, marks one of the darkest chapters in Indian democracy—a time when the Constitution was suspended, civil liberties were crushed, and press freedom was throttled under the draconian imposition of National Emergency by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Though India's Constitution doesn’t explicitly mention “freedom of the press,” it is understood to be an integral part of Article 19(1)(a) which guarantees freedom of speech and expression. The Supreme Court has time and again upheld that the press, being the voice of the people, is protected under this fundamental right. However, Congress governments, both before and after the Emergency, have repeatedly used laws, threats, and even physical violence to curb the voice of dissent in the media.
Even before Emergency, the Congress party showed signs of intolerance toward press freedom. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, introduced the First Amendment in 1951, placing “reasonable restrictions” on free speech. Through the Press (Objectionable Matter) Act, 1951, Nehru began tightening the state’s grip on journalism. His government banned and censored several publications, including Cross Roads and Organiser, especially when they criticized state policies. The arrest of noted poet Majrooh Sultanpuri for writing a poem against Nehru further reflected the fragile state of press freedom during this era. Civil servant A.D. Gorwala’s critical columns in The Times of India were allegedly discontinued under pressure from Nehru himself.
But the most brutal blow to the freedom of the press came under the leadership of Indira Gandhi. Following the Allahabad High Court’s judgment nullifying her election on grounds of electoral malpractice, she declared a National Emergency citing “internal disturbances.” This led to the suspension of civil liberties, including the right to freedom of speech and expression. Newspapers were subjected to severe pre-censorship. Editors were told what they could or could not publish. The Press Council of India was abolished, and the Prevention of Publication of Objectionable Matter Act made censorship part of normal governance.
Newspapers that resisted faced consequences. The Indian Express and The Statesman protested by leaving their editorial columns blank, a symbolic act of resistance that echoed globally. The office of Motherland, one of the few newspapers that dared to print news about the Emergency, was targeted with power cuts while communist mouthpieces remained unaffected. Foreign journalists from The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Times of London were expelled or intimidated. Even BBC’s Mark Tully was temporarily silenced. An estimated 7,000 journalists were jailed, according to a 1976 Home Ministry report. India's global press freedom ranking plummeted from 3rd to 34th, signaling an authoritarian grip over media.
RSS-inspired publications such as Organiser, Panchjanya, and Tarun Bharat were especially targeted. K.R. Malkani, editor of Motherland and Organiser, became the first journalist to be arrested during the Emergency and remained behind bars until it ended. The government even categorized newspapers as "friendly," "neutral," or "hostile," with advertisement revenues and accreditations distributed accordingly. This discriminatory practice weaponized public funds to control media narratives.
Government-controlled media units like the DAVP and Films Division became tools for propaganda. They promoted the image of Sanjay Gandhi and the Congress party while denying support to Opposition voices. Publications were even coerced into boosting sales of Indira Gandhi’s books. Souvenirs glorifying the ruling party received preferential treatment in terms of government ads and printing rates.
Indira Gandhi’s intolerance towards dissent wasn’t limited to the Emergency period. In 1980, editors Ajay Mitra and Guru Sharan Singh were arrested in Singhbhum. The same year, the Bihar Chief Minister burned copies of Sunday magazine for exposing his misdeeds. West Bengal witnessed Congress loyalists burning thousands of critical magazines. Editors of publications such as Frontier and Jantar Mukh were threatened with “physical liquidation.”
Rajiv Gandhi followed this legacy by attempting to introduce the infamous Defamation Bill in 1988, a direct consequence of exposés by The Hindu and Indian Express on the Bofors scandal. This proposed law sought to criminalize any imputation against public figures and scurrilous writings. The bill led to a media uprising. Journalists protested nationwide, walking out of press conferences en masse and educating the public about its dangers. Even Congress MPs opposed it. Facing backlash from media, civil society, and within his party, Rajiv Gandhi ultimately withdrew the bill.
Draconian measures continued into the 21st century. Manmohan Singh’s UPA government introduced Section 66A of the IT Act in 2009, allowing arrests for online speech deemed “offensive.” This ambiguous and arbitrarily applied law led to multiple arrests and was widely condemned until the Supreme Court struck it down in 2015. Prasar Bharati’s then-CEO Jawhar Sircar criticized the government’s meddling in public broadcasting, lamenting the lack of autonomy and the “shadow of government” over Doordarshan.
The suppression of press by Congress governments extended into individual states as well. In Bihar, the 1982 Press Bill gave the state authority to jail journalists for two years for blackmail or indecent reporting. In West Bengal, Siddhartha Shankar Ray allegedly advised cutting off electricity to newspaper offices before the Emergency to prevent negative reporting. In Karnataka, journalist Santhosh Thammayya was arrested in 2018 for making a speech critical of Tipu Sultan. In Maharashtra, Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami was repeatedly targeted and arrested, first following Congress worker-led violence and later in a reopened suicide case.
The pattern is unmistakable. From Nehru to Indira, Rajiv to Manmohan Singh, and even in state governments under Congress, attempts to throttle press freedom have remained a recurring theme. While India’s Constitution and courts have affirmed the press as a crucial pillar of democracy, Congress regimes have frequently undermined it. The Emergency remains the most egregious example of how a government can misuse power to silence dissent, but even beyond those 21 months, successive Congress-led administrations have resorted to censorship, arrests, and intimidation to control narratives.
Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of a vibrant democracy. India’s history, however, stands as a cautionary tale of how quickly that freedom can be eroded when power is unchecked and the press becomes the enemy of the state rather than its conscience.
