“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell’s warning in 1984 feels particularly relevant when political parties begin contesting documented history.
In Tamil Nadu, that contest is now over the Emergency and MISA, that is the Maintenance of Internal Security Act 1971.
Chief Minister Vijay appeared to cast doubt on whether MK Stalin was arrested under MISA.
His cabinet colleague CTR Nirmal Kumar went further.
We went back to the Justice MM Ismail Commission report, the official inquiry into the alleged torture of political prisoners in Madras Central Prison.
The commission was appointed by the AIADMK government under CM MGR.
And the documents leave little room for ambiguity. Stalin was a political prisoner and MISA was a law that had to go.
But MISA has been replaced in many other forms.
Let Me Explain.
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MISA, the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, was enacted in 1971 during Indira Gandhi’s rule.
It allowed the government to detain people without trial in the name of national security and public order.
During the Emergency, declared in June 1975, it became a key tool to imprison political opponents, activists, journalists and critics.
The Shah Commission later recorded that nearly 35,000 people were detained without trial.
Tamil Nadu saw particularly intense repression. The Commission described the DMK as facing a “concentrated onslaught”, with over 400 of its members detained under MISA, out of 570 political detentions in the state.
Now, let’s come to what happened in Madras Central Prison.
In February 1976, allegations emerged that political prisoners detained under MISA were being brutally beaten and ill-treated by prison staff.
A departmental enquiry claimed that the allegations were not substantiated.
But after the Emergency ended, several released detenus spoke publicly about what they had experienced.
And in 1977, the Tamil Nadu government appointed Justice MM Ismail of the Madras High Court to investigate the allegations.
Retired Justice Chandru gave us a copy of the English version of the report.
The Justice MM Ismail Commission was specifically asked to inquire into the alleged ill-treatment and beating of political prisoners in Madras Central Prison.
That wording of the government order matters.
Political prisoners.
Not people arrested for theft or robbery.
And not people arrested for offences against women.
This is the affidavit of Surulirajan, the former chief warden of Madras Central Prison.
He said that on February 1, 1977, the ninth block of the prison was vacated and used to lodge MISA detenus, including Chittibabu, MK Stalin, Veeramani and others.
In other words, the official prison record places Stalin among the MISA detenus housed in that block.
An affidavit where a prison official identified MISA detainees.
And the Commission did not merely rely on one affidavit.
It examined 46 affidavits alleging torture and ill-treatment.
Its conclusion was unequivocal: the allegations of brutal beating, harassment and ill-treatment of MISA detainees at Madras Central Prison were true and substantiated.
The report recorded premeditated violence, assault, denial of basic toilet facilities, and that prisoners were given food adulterated with neem oil, sand and excess salt.
This was not a report describing a normal prison experience.
It was a report documenting the abuse of political detainees during the Emergency.
One of those detainees was Chittibabu, who was also Stalin’s cellmate.
Chittibabu died on January 5, 1977.
The Commission found that although his death was not directly caused by the beatings, the severe physical abuse and psychological distress he had endured aggravated his suffering.
Finally, let’s not forget
The MISA Act’s stated grounds included threats to the defence of India, India’s relations with foreign powers, the security of India, and the maintenance of public order.
It was not an ordinary law for arresting people for theft, robbery or other routine criminal offences.
So when a minister says that people arrested during the MISA period could also have been arrested for theft, robbery or other crimes, that may be a general statement about the period.
But it does not answer the specific question about Stalin.
And there is another important point here.
The Ismail Commission was appointed in 1977 by the AIADMK government led by M. G. Ramachandran.
Its findings are part of the official record of what happened in prisons.
You can disagree with a political party.
You can investigate its corruption allegations.
But casually dismissing documented history is problematic.
Because the Emergency is not merely an old political argument.
It is a reminder of what happens when governments are given extraordinary powers and democratic safeguards are weakened.
MISA allowed detention without trial.
It was thankfully repealed in 1978.
But various Indian governments did not stop creating laws that gave the state extraordinary powers in the name of national security.
We saw TADA,
We saw POTA,
And today, we have UAPA,
The laws are different.
The political contexts are different.
And it would be simplistic to say they are all identical to MISA.
But the recurring question is the same:
What happens when the state is given extraordinary powers to detain people
That is why the history of MISA matters.
The Ismail Commission exists precisely so that this history cannot be reduced to political slogans.
It is a record.
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Produced by Megha Mukundan and Akshay Lal, Script by Dhanya Rajendran, Camera by Akshay Lal and Megha Mukundan, Edit by Krishna