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Should the emergency drag on—and should popular opposition to Mrs. Gandhi's seizure of power grow—the key to the crisis may well lie with the Indian army. In the British style, it is apolitical by tradition, and for the time being it is believed that military leaders support Mrs. Gandhi, primarily to see that law-and-order is maintained. Only one Indian officer, moreover, the illustrious Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, 61, has the standing and charisma needed to win the backing of the army for a military takeover. But Manekshaw was closely associated with Mrs. Gandhi in the Indian army's military triumph over Pakistan in the Bangladesh war. All that could conceivably change, of course, should Prime Minister Gandhi attempt to use her emergency powers to push
India into all-out socialism. Late last week Mrs. Gandhi said she would announce some new measures in a few days to increase production and alleviate economic hardship.
But her real intentions will probably be shown by the extent to which she is prepared to punish her political opponents and suppress a free press —and by whether she uses her new powers to postpone the national elections due next spring. An extended period of political suppression would certainly pose the severest threat to India's 28-year-old experiment in democracy.
*Not to be confused with the pro-Moscow Communist Party of India, which strongly backs her.