Shah Commission Report – Lost and regained

Shah Commission was a commission of inquiry appointed by Government of India in 1977 to inquire into all the excesses committed in the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77). It was headed by Justice J.C. Shah, a former chief Justice of India. The commission deposed hundreds of individuals and after two years produced a 500 page report on the persons responsible for atrocities committed during emergency.

The report was particularly scathing of Indira Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi,Pranab Mukerjee,Bansi Lal,Kamal Nath and officers belonging to civil services who helped Sanjay Gandhi.

This report was later rejected by the congress government headed by Indira Gandhi, which was back in power in 1980. The government also took the extraordinary step of recalling every published report and destroying the copies. It is now believed that not a single copy of this report exists in India.A third and final report of the commission seems to have slipped out and is currently held by National Library of Australia.

Katherine frank, who is famous for her book on Indira Gandhi mentioned in the biography that Indira Gandhi was unwilling to cooperate during the deposition and J.C.Shah lost his cool after three days of patient questioning and reprimanded her.

Even after three decades, no efforts were made to restore the report to fill the gap in the Indian political history.  Mr Era Sezhiyan, 87 year old celebrated  Parliamentarian, who was also one of the victims of emergency days, has brought out the Shah Commission report with his comments and remarks, under the title ‘Shah Commission Report – Lost and regained”.  This book was released in Chennai by the opposition leader Mr L K Advani on 19th December 2010.