Prologue continues ....

There have been many twists and turns in free India’s political history. One does not know why events happen the way they do. The internal Emergency in 1975 was certainly not a natural consequence of India’s democratic experiment that started in 1947. It was perhaps an overreaction to an emerging political situation characterized by a rather high-pitched

campaign against the Government and the decision of a high court in an election petition.

The internal Emergency, which obviously led to the suspension of citizen’s freedoms, put us back in the category of Third World dictatorships and falsified our claim to be a robust democracy. But since India’s history contains many such surprises, one does not have to bother too much about this temporary phase in our political life. The people restored sanity to the system.

Indira Gandhi’s defeat and the Janata Party’s victory in the general elections in 1977 and her ride back to power after two years in the next elections are important instances in the history of Indian democracy. People who were ready to write an epitaph to India’s democratic experiment were seen rubbing their eyes in wonder at the national choice illiterate men and women made on each of these occasions.

As a historic inevitability, Indira Gandhi emerged on the political scene when the leadership of the Indian National Congress had become effete and the party was running out of steam. She changed the mood and temperament and thinking of the party. She galvanized it and gave it a sense of purpose. She reshaped it according to her own wishes. She set the norms for this party and demanded absolute loyalty from it. She alone wrote the political script.

To be continued......