Doordarshan does it again! Manages to reduce Emergency into dull and boring documentaries

Rarely, if ever, does DD News encourage any appointment viewing. But this week promised to be different, because the government channel was going to air a five-part series on the Emergency. It was dramatically – although missing a definitive article - titled The Truth Of Emergency.

According to news reports, describing the series, Prasar Bharati chairperson A Surya Prakash said, “As a public broadcaster we must reinforce constitutional values and reinforce public trust and commitment to democratic values”– which sounded a little propaganda-ish and school marmish, not to mention ironic, given that the Emergency was famous for wanting to reinforce values and trust in what the government of the day decided were constitutional and democratic values viz Indira is India. The series according to The Times of India would supposedly trace events “leading to the suspension of democratic rights like the Navnirman Andolan, 1971 polls, imposition of Emergency and its impact. Among the incidents that will be highlighted include PM Modi’s work in Gujarat in mobilizing support with the RSS and the Jan Sangharsh Samiti, the forced sterilization of male Meo Muslims in the Haryana village of Uttawar and the cases of arbitrary arrests and torture of prominent people like Lawrence Fernandes”.

The Emergency without doubt is one of the bleakest periods of post-independence India. An elected government ran amok, incarcerating more innocent people than even the British had during the Quit India movement. It is important for us to remind ourselves of the despotism that politicians and democratically-elected leaders are capable of. The incarceration and persecution and experiences of various journalists and politicians during this period, also helps us understand how their ideologies developed and explains their deep-seated hatred for the Gandhis.

The Emergency makes for a great documentary. After all, it stars India’s only woman prime minister, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, and her Machiavellian son, Sanjay Gandhi. There is political manipulation, suppression of freedom, well-known politicians and journalists thrown into jail, press censorship, forced sterilisation, unprecedented amendments to the Constitution.

Would DD show us how Arun Jaitley, then still in college, was thrown into jail? Or allow Prabhu Chawla to tell us why he signed Indira Gandhi’s Twenty Point programme? Or speak to the communist leaders – the few that are still alive - on their incarceration? Would Rajat Sharma speak on his role in protesting the Emergency? This was documentary gold, because many of the people who lived through the Emergency are today’s politicians and editors. Also, thanks to the Congress being at the Centre for so long, the Emergency has been a taboo topic, to my knowledge, for Doordarshan.

It is hard not to note the irony of how the same channel which refused to telecast Anand Patwardhan’s films for over a decade, and finally aired War and Peace and Father, Son and Holy War after a protracted legal battle is now airing a documentary on the Emergency and censorship with pious statements about “democratic values”.

The entire series is in Hindi and called Aapatkal Ka Sach, the first episode being Aahat. It is all very dramatic, with the name of the series and episode being shown the way films of the time were – white writing on a black background. It’s neat to see that DD realising this was a documentary about the seventies wanted to replicate the feel of the Films Division documentaries of that time. A great idea undone by the fact that the rest of the episode also looked like it was made in Seventies in terms of production values. The sotto voce voiceover says sentences such as - “Yeh andhakaar ke ek daur ke anth ke shuruat thi. Saal ke us waqt, jab din chhotein hone lagtein hai, aur raatein lambi. Subah toh hui thi, lekin logon ki awaaz gum ho chuki thi”. Any second I expected Manoj Kumar to appear and sing a song. Which might have made the episode slightly more interesting.

The episode began with narrating events from 1969 – with voiceovers while generic footage from the time is shown. Footage which is not very clear and clips of news reports which are very blurry. Also, we were shown the same footage of Indira Gandhi running down a small slope, at least 5 times. The announcement of the Emergency is described along with a recording of Indira Gandhi’s voice declaring it on AIR. Various journalists (varisht patrakaars) are shown speaking exactly one to two sentences. From Satish Jacob to Shivanand Tiwari to MJ Akbar to Kuldip Nayar. Not all that they say adds that much to the narration. MJ Akbar says something irrelevant about how the family feels that if they aren’t in politics, then the country will no longer be theirs. A nothing statement at best, in the context of this series. Every event is touched upon but very briefly. From Indira Gandhi’s poor show in 1967 to the propaganda by PN Haksar and others to portray her as a friend of the masses to nationalising banks and insurance companies to how she canvassed for VV Giri.

Not everyone is familiar with the key players of the time, and it’s odd that the film auteurs at DD didn’t realise this. Instead of wasting at least 10 minutes on random Ramsay Brother-esque mood setting narration, why would you not spend 5 minutes (a long time on film) to show who the key politicians of the time were? Also, wherever they don’t have footage, the film-makers have suddenly used, without credit, scenes from films where you can spot Naseerudin Shah and the Bengali actor Anil Chatterjee talking to villagers.

The second episode called Faisla – decision, showed the protests in LD Engineering College Ahmedabad in 1973 and the Navnirman movement. The Bihar movement is touched upon but the shaky footage and ominous narration ends up watering down a pivotal point of a key event which led to the Emergency and Indira Gandhi’s increased resentment towards Jayprakash Narayan.

There is no proper explanation of who Jayprakash Narayan was or why his association with Indira Gandhi deteriorated which is a pity given his pivotal role in the Emergency. The documentary does describe how Chimanbhai Patel, then Congress chief minister of Gujarat, was forced to step down. JP’s rise as a voluble and effective critic to Indira Gandhi is touched on, but not explored in detail.

The series is also totally in Hindi, with no subtitles. Does DD News only want Hindi-speaking audiences to watch this series? Why would you not increase the scope of viewership of your documentary – however pedantic and boring it be? Little in the making of this series makes sense, though. Since there was no chance of something like this airing during the UPA years, most likely it was hastily put together after Narendra Modi became PM. That must be its excuse but It is almost a travesty that a subject so ripe for television and celluloid is rendered so boring and uninteresting purely because the programme is so shoddily made.

You get no sense of the air of intolerance which was promoted at the time. Of the famed midnight arrests, media censorship, how a “committed judiciary” was created, and of Sanjay Gandhi’s excesses (you don’t even know Sanjay Gandhi exists in the first two episodes). Perhaps that will come later but even Bipan Chandra, who is known for marrying boredom and history marvellously, could have written a more interesting script. And more’s the pity. Episode 3 – Andhera, will be telecasted on Thursday night. I’ll be reading Coomi Kapoor’s The Emergency instead.

But if you are made of firmer stuff than I, do watch it and the remaining episodes. Someone should.

The Truth Of Emergency will be aired till 27 June 27 on DD News at 3.30pm, 7.30pm and 10pm.