50 years of Emergency: Locked up with seven inmates, M.K. Stalin was beaten, harassed after arrest under MISA

DMK president and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin recently remarked that his jawbones were broken in jail during Emergency after the current CM C. Joseph Vijay’s gesture in the Assembly on September 7, 2026, sparked a row. Read the full story of what happened to Stalin after he was arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in the year 1976 in the below article, which was published on June 25, 2025, to mark 50 years of Emergency.

Hours after the M. Karunanidhi-led DMK government was dismissed during the Emergency on January 31, 1976, police arrived at his Gopalapuram residence. They were looking for his 23-year-old son, M.K. Stalin — now the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Mr. Stalin was in Maduranthakam at the time and returned the following day. Karunanidhi asked him to “be prepared.”