Emergency in 1975

The Emergency last declared on 25th June, 1975 midnight on grounds of threats to our national security, completes 50 years this year. It was declared by a Presidential Proclamation by the then President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed on the advice of our then Prime Minister and iron-handed leader Indira Gandhi. In the year 1971, India had defeated Pakistan in the war and liberated East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Post war, the country's economy was in shambles. Drought started leading to a severe agrarian crisis. In 1973, the Oil Crisis of OPEAC, lead to high inflation in prices of oil adversely impacting our economy. Moreover, internal political unrest had developed a crisis where the proclamation was none but imminent. There were assassination attempts on several public personalities, and our own Railway Minister Lalit Narayan Mishraji was brutally killed in a bomb blast at a railway station. The opposition led by Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan alongwith Morarji Desai started massive protests against the leadership of Indiraji after her loss in the Supreme Court case on electoral malpractices against Raj Narain. Opposition leaders and activists organised daily protests. On the 25th of June 1975, JP Narayan organised a large rally in Delhi and incited police and defence personnel to disobey. Also, due to the railway employees strike led by George Fernandes, the entire rail network had come to a standstill. Student protests on fees in Gujarat as well as in Bihar were fuelled by leaders like JP Narayan and others. Hence, the internal security situation in India had turned volatile. There were calls from the ruling Indian National Congress Party for a Presidential Emergency to prevent any further deterioration. Thus, ultimately at midnight on the 25th of June, 1975, President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed declared a state of Emergency. 

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Almost all the major political party leaders were arrested and imprisoned including JP Narayan, Morarji Desai, George Fernandes, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Vijayraje Scindia, Charan Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Raj Narain etc. All forms of strikes, dharnas etc. were crushed down heavily. Elections to the Parliament and the state governments were postponed. Freedom of the Press was suspended and newspapers, magazines etc. were almost stopped except for a few. In the meantime, the government came up with the 20 Point Economic Programme for getting the economy out of the abyss. Increase in agricultural and industrial productivity, improvement in Public Services, fighting Poverty, Illiteracy through strict discipline. Several Ordinances were passed for the same. The 42nd Amendment to the Constitution was passed that empowered the government largely. Apex Bipartite Committees were formed by government at the Centre and the States for creating councils of workers, employees. 

The good part during that time was that inflation had eased greatly. Due to the good monsoon that year, followed by the resolution of Oil Crisis, inflation in food and grains eased. But, after March 1976, inflation started rising again to abysmal levels. Tax exemption for lower earning groups was a welcome step. Moreover, tax breaks for the higher income groups i.e. Rs. 8000-15000/- also helped collections. Wealth tax was cut. Income tax was reduced by 11%. But, the shortfall was compensated well by cuts in welfare related expenses. Demolition of slums in major cities like Delhi and also in Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra for the urban renewal program spearheaded by Sanjay Gandhi were carried out. To reduce the population increase, sterilizations, sometimes forced were carried out.

There were criticism as well as support for the imposition of the Emergency. Prominent newspapers protested by printing blank editorials. Books were written on it. Political leaders, were divided in supporting or opposing it. The US government disliked but diplomatically kept silent. While the Russians supported it and Mrs. Indira Gandhi's actions then. The Emergency lasted for only 21 months from 25th June 1975 to 21st March 1977. About 1 lakh people had been arrested. Despite being a dark period in India's history, it must also be remembered as a time to consolidate on our unity, political and economic development as well as to admire at the firm-handedness of our great leader Smt. Indira Gandhi.             

The Kapil Sharma Show

Humor and Laughter are important aspects that remove the dullness and monotony to energize us psychologically and emotionally. Comedy shows-Live or Recorded are very popular and appealing now-a-days. The Kapil Sharma Show run by comedian, actor, celebrity Kapil Sharma is undoubtedly the most popular of them all. Started in April 2016 and running till date albeit with a new name, is famous for its witty, dramatic and funny acts staged by actors, on the sets. Aired on Sony Liv channel first, it basically has guests invites for minute interviews alongside jugular acts from actors mimicking superstars, actors, directors and many others. Using a commonplace Hindi, in total the program provides celebrity interview mixed with artists impersonating other characters.

Photo Credit: SAJID KHAN 9867589890

The show is a reality laughter-show where, celebrity guests are interviewed in front a small audience as well as broadcast on the Sony Liv channel. Apart from Kapil Sharma the host, the cast includes Krushna Abhishek acting as Dharmendra, SRK, Sapna etc. Kiku Sharda mimicking as Bumper, Sunny Deol, Nurse etc., Sunil Grover acting as the famous Dr. Masoor Gulati of 50-50 Hospital, Rinku Devi, Mithun Chakraborty etc., Chandan Prabhakar acting as Chandu Tea Seller, Sumona Chakraborty acting Bhoori etc., Bharti Singh mimicking as Madhuri Dixit, Simran, Titli etc., Sidharth Sagar as Music Teacher, Naseeruddin Shah, Ranveer Singh etc., veteran actress Upasana Singh as Kapil aka Kappu's Bua among others. The celebrity guests that came to the show included Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Akshay Kumar, Irfan Khan, Monoj Bajpayee, Aishwariya Rai, Tripti Dimri, John Abraham and many others both on promotions of their upcoming films or directional ventures as also as Kapil Sharma's guests. The TRP of the show is highest among all genres of programs shown on TV. The IMDb ratings of the show are at 7.3/10. The popularity of the show is so much that it found mention in the speeches in elections of 2014, prominent public, social functions etc.

Kapil Sharma first won the Great Indian Laughter Challenge trophy in 2007 and since then has scaled almost all ladders of success. He is now one of the most wealthy and popular of comedians and screen celebrities of showbiz. Judged by veteran actress Archana Puran Singh and then by famous cricketer turned commentator and politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, the show with 471 episodes has its own fan following and avid viewership. Now, showing with a different name since 2024, as the Great Indian Kapil Show, the comedy-show has filled the Indian drawing rooms with bouts of laughter, smile and fun through the years.                 

JavaScript

JavaScript - One of the most popular, versatile, feature-loaded, flexible and efficient web programming languages. Created by Brenden Eich in 1995, it is now widely used in a variety of devices like computers, mobile phones, tablets, television sets etc. to display web applications in a large number of formats performing a variety of functions. A regular web application will be time consuming if it has to produce fast and exquisite pages in response to user interactions using HTML, CSS or other languages. JavaScript transforms a web browser in such a manner that it produces instant reports, pages in quick response to user data. In other words, it programs the browser to perform a lot of tasks which would have been done by many other linked applications slowly and in a burdensome manner. The browsers are now not only fast but also more productive in use.    

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First developed as an alternative to Microsoft’s ASP language by Netscape for its Netscape Navigator browser, it has grown since the Internet boom began. Since web users need fast, accurate, responsive as well as elegant web sites, other programming languages like Java, C, C++, HTML etc. could not be used. Hence, a programming language that could process data at the browser level itself without going through the long server-side process was the need of the time. JavaScript combines the HTML type markup using tags with the Java, C++ type programming to produce fast, interactive, dynamic web pages for the users. JavaScript comes through all the versions being ES1, ES2, ES3, ES4, ES5 and currently ES6 versions. It has some very interesting features like object-oriented programming for faster, modular and secure pages, to inbuilt functions, JSON objects, DOM (Document Object Model) feature to modify the entire page fast, Event programming, Arrays to frameworks like Angular, Nodejs, Bootstrap, Express.js, Spring etc. libraries like React etc. Alongside, it enables the Console tool which a developer can instantly view the program output in the browser console itself.

It has lately left behind many other programming languages viz- Python, Java in today’s world of mobile revolution, scalable web pages as well the elegance and dynamism of the web. A recent study shows JavaScript’s versatile, feature loaded and wide capabilities have made it indispensable for web applications. It has been used to create popular apps like Netflix, Candy Crush Saga, Facebook, Uber, eBay, Groupon etc. Given its C, C++, Java type programming structure it easily allows programmers to develop apps alternatively and more easily. Moreover, its HTML embedding allows it to be used for processes very easily for dynamic and featured web pages. It can used for Frontend as well as Backend web development. Thus, it can help store, retrieve data from backend devices as well as display them easily in web pages. Hence, we can develop full-stack web applications using one language. For mobile games, frameworks like React Native, Phaser, PixiJS etc. help develop fast and portable mobile games. It has database frameworks like MongoDB, NodeJS etc. to accomplish a lot in the web app development and deployment world.

However, given the fast-changing nature of web apps, it has to keep pace with transitions coming. Python has an upper hand in dealing with AI and AI-based services. New libraries like TensorFlow.js, Brain.js, Synaptic will use machine learning to train apps within JavaScript. On the other hand, AI integration in the web browsers will also enhance the capabilities of JS in creating and running interactive and dynamic webpages. In addition, new serverless models of web development, Web Assembly, better JavaScript Engine development, Framework evolution will help it retain its supremacy in the web app development and deployment business.