"The President has proclaimed a state of emergency. This is nothing to panic about."
With those crisp words, in an unscheduled radio broadcast on All India Radio last Wednesday, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced the temporary suspension of civil liberties in the world's largest democracy and second most populous nation (600 million). It was, both for Mrs. Gandhi and for India, a dangerous gamble that caught her political opposition off guard and shocked much of the rest of the world. Assuming extraordinary powers under the emergency decree, Mrs. Gandhi inaugurated a nationwide...
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