Because I Have A Voice by Arvind Narrain

The Emergency posed the most serious threat to the Indian democratic project. Essentially, the rule of law was suspended and the judiciary in effect gave the stateĬarte blanche for an executive rule unfettered by the Constitution. The declaration of Emergency on June 25, 1975, resulted in the suspension of fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of speech and expression and the right to move courts for the enforcement of fundamental rights. What distinguishes this ‘undeclared Emergency’ from the Emergency between 19 declared by Indira Gandhi? You say Narendra Modi’s regime has “inaugurated a new kind of state”.

In your book you make the forceful point that what India has been witnessing since 2014 is an ‘undeclared Emergency’. In a wide-ranging interview withįrontline, Narrain discusses several issues that emerge from his book. Narrain looks at a wide variety of historical and contemporary sources to establish his argument. In his latest book, Narrain argues that India is in the midst of an ‘undeclared Emergency’, which has incrementally been implemented since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014. He was part of a team of lawyers that challenged Section 377 (criminalising homosexuality) of the Indian Penal Code right from the Delhi High Court in 2009 up to the Supreme Court in 2018. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, the topic for which is the legal and political thought of B.R. The Preamble: A Brief Introduction (2020). Law Like Love: Queer Perspectives on Law (2011) and co-authoredīreathing Life into the Constitution: Human Rights Lawyering in India (2016) and He is visiting faculty at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University. India’s Undeclared Emergency: Constitutionalism and the Politics of Resistance. Arrain, a Bengaluru-based lawyer and writer, is the author of

Because I Have A Voice by Arvind Narrain