RAICHUR: Forty-two years have elapsed since the declaration of Emergency by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975. And since then, jaw-dropping tales of dissenters working undercover, providential escapes, killings, struggle for press freedom among others have been cropping up aplenty now and then. But this tale from Raichur is sure to win many hearts. There were not many so-called ‘state enemies’ in this backward district as no movement took a concrete shape during the time of Emergency. But though a few ‘revolutions’ were at a nascent stage, it was enough for the state to crack down. In the district, three people were kept under preventive detention at the district prison.
This trivia about the Emergency was first shared by Raghunandan T R, former joint secretary to the government of India, and it was narrated to him by his sister Renuka Vishwanath, who, during the Emergency, served as assistant commissioner.In a Facebook post on May 7, 2018, Raghunandan said three people -- one each from the Sangh Parivar, Jamaat and Communist party -- were arrested during the Emergency. As they were considered dissenters by the government and as all three were pursuing different agendas, they were kept in the same cell in the district prison.
And they were given the freedom to order food from their respective homes. The names of the three were not mentioned in the post. According to the post, the RSS and Jamaat people got food from their homes, while the communist was poor and there was none to bring him food. The RSS man got vegetarian food, while Jamaat person used to get meat-based dishes, many a times sumptuous biriyani. In a heart-warming gesture, when faced by hunger, the RSS and Jamaat men used to share their food with the communist. The post finally ended by saying ‘divided by ideology and united by hunger’.Recalling those days, Renuka said her late husband, who was the SP of Raichur back then, shared this with her. She said there were not many enemies of the state in Raichur, but these three were the top leaders of the three different organisations who were kept under preventive detention for sometime.