The Woman My Grandmother Loved.

Chapter Twenty One

The seventies would go down as one of the most trying times for the Indian media. Over 7000 journalists and media personnel were arrested. Many media veterans like Nikhil Chaudhary (founder editor of Mainstream) and Romesh Thapar (editor of Seminar) decided to cease publication as a mark of protest.

Media icon Kuldip Nayyar who was a huge critic of Congress was imprisoned. Gaur Kishore Ghosh a Calcutta-based columnist, shaved his head and was reprimanded by authorities for this display of protest. However, not everybody was against the Congress government and their decision to impose the Emergency in order to flush out the growing opposition and unrest in the country. Khushwant Singh, eminent journalist, and writer was a huge supporter of the decision and believed that the move was in every way justifiable. The Government then began the Samachar, a newspaper, which was to act as the official mouthpiece for the government and further spread the Governments propaganda.

The Prime Minister had remarked on the All India Radio "The President has proclaimed Emergency. There is nothing to worry about." This message was quite on the contrary for there was a lot to worry about.

Anita grew a lot during this phase and this was the first time that she was tested as a journalist. Her father had resigned as the editor of Veritas a long time ago and her youngest brother was now the editor in charge with Anita acting below him. They didn't withhold their publications. This meant that her brother, Roop was called to the Chief Press Advisors' office more than once during the Emergency which lasted until March 1977. Veritas was placed under pre-censorship for refusing to follow the guidelines and this meant that their articles were canceled at the last minute and were expected to fill in before the next morning. Leaving blank pages was also considered a crime and thus, they had no choice but to follow the guidelines imposed. Anita was often working nights, meeting with RSS and Anti- emergency activists under disguise, trying to understand the inner workings of the movement.

But these weren't the only problems faced by the nation during the time. There were recession and unemployment rates reached an all-time high; Sanjay Gandhi began the infamous family planning schemes where vasectomies were forced upon unwilling men, in order to curb the nation's growing population.

When Roop was sent to jail at the beginning of 1976, the responsibility of the newspaper fell on Anita. The old editor of Veritas was a nationalist and had seen much of the country's bloody struggle for freedom from colonial oppressors. He had witnessed great leaders and freedom fighters in his time and himself understood the importance of a free press. For democracy to demonstrate such autocratic tendencies was alarming. Moreover, the socialist leader who had led the Anti Congress movement prior to his arrest was a freedom fighter, and his message reverberated deeply with the old man. Roop going to jail, leaving his young wife and children at the house was a constant worry but by this time, Anita had learned to suppress those worries and simply write. She cut her hair short much to her mother's chagrin and vehemently refused to get married. This time, her father too was on her side for he considered the idea of marriage during such uncertain times to be absolutely preposterous.

By now, printing presses were afraid to touch them because of their frequent clashes with the government. Moreover, the frequent articles about JP Narayan that her father insisted on forwarding to the Chief Press Advisor's office had finally caught onto them. Veritas was officially asked to shut down; the refusal to follow which, would be met with severe consequences. Anita had two choices. One, she could agree to shut down the office and prevent herself and her father from landing in jail much akin to Roop. Two, she could continue printing by trying to meet the expenses of the printing press herself.

Anita and her father decided to go ahead with the latter, trying to raise money for the printing machines by asking their readers to contribute to them. The support that poured in surprised both Anita and her father and it was more evident then than ever that people were sick of being fed censored news. They wanted and needed to know what was going on and Anita was more than willing to do so. The clashes with the censorship office continued for a long time and so did the long, tedious hours.