Presiding Over The Emergency: Life of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed

Born in Delhi, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was the fifth President of Independent India. While he had a rich legacy, Ahmed is most remembered as the President who signed the order declaring an Emergency in 1975 under then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. While he served as President for only three years—1974 to 1977— Ahmed left an impression on Indian democracy that remains to this day. 

In his address to the nation on Independence Day, 1975 he said that the Emergency was a "passing phase" and it had been imposed to save India from chaos and disruption. He also cautioned that liberty should not "degenerate into licence" and exhorted the nation to focus on increasing production.

A lawyer and a politician who studied in premier institutes in both Delhi and England, Ahmed returned to India with a degree in law in 1928. He went on to practice law in Lahore and thereafter in Guwahati. He founded the Guwahati Bar Association and Assam’s third advocate general. 

Indira Gandhi made Ahmed a national Cabinet Minister in 1966. He was in charge of the Power, Irrigation, Agriculture and Irrigation Ministries. In 1974, it was between Ahmed and Tridib Chaudhuri for President of India; Ahmed won out having secured a greater confidence with Gandhi. 

As President, in 1975, Ahmed signed the order that imposed the Emergency in August 1975. Thereafter he gave his assent to numerous ordinances and constitutional amendments that allowed Gandhi to rule by decree. Ahmed’s position at the time was highly criticised, albeit behind closed doors, except for Indian Express cartoonist Abu Abraham whose cartoon of Ahmed in a bathtub signing ordinances while seemingly “relaxing” became an iconic image of the Emergency and Ahmed’s tenure as President. His Presidency had been described as a rubber stamp.

Ahmed had been a member of the Congress since 1931, and was a member of various working committees during that time. It is well-known that he was responsible for the entry of Muhammed Saadulah, a Muslim League leader into the Congress Party in 1951.

He also played a role in stopping the Prevention of Infiltrators Plan, which is based on the National Register of Citizens, 1951, and was meant to identify and deport illegal migrants to Assam. During this time, he argued that such a plan would lead to the Congress losing Muslim supporters in Assam. 

While Ahmed spoke in favour of the Emergency in public, in private its been documented in an embassy cable sent from the United States Embassy in Delhi in August 1976 that he and Gandhi had a fallout over the orders. 

The cable noted Ahmed's growing concern that Indira and Sanjay Gandhi were "pushing too hard on the political and Constitutional system of India" and reported that he had rebuffed her suggestion to replace the vice-president, B.D. Jatti with her former defence minister, Swaran Singh.

Ahmed also advised Gandhi against her plan to replace her entire cabinet with younger ministers. The cable went on to note that Ahmed was "uncomfortable with some of Mrs. Gandhi's actions and certainly with those of her son" and that Indira Gandhi had apologised to Ahmed on behalf of Sanjay Gandhi for his rude remarks when the President declined to give a statement for the inaugural issue of the younger Gandhi's magazine, Surya.

Ahmed died in February 1977 of a heart attack. He was accorded a state funeral and is buried in a masjid near Parliament House in New Delhi.