CHENNAI: A former IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, M G Devasahayam became close to Jayaprakash Narain as he was in charge of taking care of the latter in jail during Emergency. Devasahayam sought the papers relating to promulgation of Emergency through an RTI application.On the intriguing question of the signed letter of then PM Indira Gandhi to President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed going missing from the files, Devasahayam says, according to his information, the original letter was duly signed by the PM and delivered by R K Dhawan to the President on the night of June 25, 1975. After Emergency was promulgated, Dhawan visited Rashtrapati Bhavan again past midnight and took back the letter. But by then Rashtrapati Bhavan staff had typed out a copy of the PM’s letter and kept it in their file. It was typed afresh as photocopiers were not in vogue then. What is now in public domain is just a copy of that typed letter, he says, and adds that another copy of the letter was with the IB, which he managed to get.Devasahayam says the provocation for Indira Gandhi to go in for Emergency was a massive public rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan with Jayaprakash Narain as the main speaker, which drew a crowd of 10 to 12 lakh people. He also says that the Home Ministry was not taken into confidence before the letter was delivered to the President.
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