A picture of Indira Gandhi when she was arrested; Image Source: India Today

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India during the 1970s was faced with one political kerfuffle after another, it was extremely fragile and unstable, to say the least. It is needless to say that the main victims of such political rigmarole were the ordinary citizens of India whose civil liberties were suspended indefinitely.
After the 1972 national elections, Indira Gandhi’s opposition forces accused her of electoral misconduct and during 1975 she was officially convicted of the same by the Allahabad High Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act. On 12th June 1975, Justice Sinha, having indicted the Prime Minister, declared her election void and debarred Indira Gandhi from contesting elections for the next 6 years. As a response to this Indira Gandhi declared a national emergency on 25th June 1975.

The repercussions of such a declaration were strict censorship of the press, suspended civil liberties, no fundamental rights or rights to appeal, numerous opposition members who were put behind bars without respecting the due process of law and finally, the establishment of a “Reign of Terror” which would subvert the very constitution of India.

A picture of Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi; Image Source: navbharttimes,indiatimes.com

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During the course of the next two years, Indira Gandhi would benefit from her exploitation of the democratic structure of India. Complicit with her popularity, Indira Gandhi eventually suspended the state of emergency and called for the next general election in March 1977, confident that she would emerge victoriously. However, the people chose the opposing Janata Party and for the first time since Independence, a party other than Congress assumed power. Janata Party assumed power with Morarji Desai as the new Prime Minister.

However, many dreams were marred as Janata Party could not make firm policy decisions regarding the crisis faced by the country, poverty being the most plaguing of them all. The first major political mishap by the Janata government would be the arrest of Indira Gandhi, an event in which many saw a personal witch hunt and flimsy political vendetta.

> Indira Gandhi had also done her part by publicly taunting the Desai government about their inability to arrest her. An early arrest was prevented seeing that there were too many issues that needed to be dealt with. The arrest had been a constant topic among the upper echelons of the government. This was not a frugal arrest, it was an arrest of the most sophisticated nature – one that needed a lot of arrangement and preparations. After much deliberation “Operation Arrest” was a go.
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The then Union Home Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh was a seasoned politician who chose the right kind of officers for the arrest and made it amply clear that they would, under no circumstances ill-treat or handcuff Indira Gandhi. Finally, the CBI along with the local police moved into 12 Willingdon Crescent, Indira Gandhi’s residence.

> However, a major catastrophe arose as Charan Singh realised the FIR contained cases that were not supposed to be acted upon. By the time he reached the CBI, they were already parked at Indira Gandhi’s residence with the FIR, all ready for the arrest. It was too late to withdraw. Whilst all her supporters were called by the family, Indira Gandhi was given to get ready for the arrest.
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As a frustrated and angry Charan Singh did his rounds in the office, Indira Gandhi elegantly asked “where are the handcuffs, I am not going without handcuffs”. This was obviously for the spectacle and the uproar. By this time, word had gone to the media. The arrest which was supposed to be a swift affair was now slowly turning into a circus. As Indira Gandhi proceeded to leave, there was a huge uproar with many supporters throwing themselves in front of the car.

> India’s democracy stood challenged, her legibility questioned and her legacy tainted as Indira Gandhi left the scene in the backdrop of a thousand drowning slogans.
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On 4th October 1977, the police under the Desai government arrested the then former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on charges of corruption. This would go down in history as a decisive moment as it marked a blow to the present Janata Party and paved the political ladder for Indira Gandhi’s ascent to power