The air was thick with expectation for 13 days after the Allahabad High Court unseated then prime minister Indira Gandhi from Lok Sabha, and the Congress met with disaster in the Gujarat assembly polls on June 12, 1975. It was the immediate, opportunistic provocation for Indira Gandhi to take the drastic step that went on to redefine Indian democracy, and her role in trying to bring it low.

Power was slipping out of her hands long before the Allahabad High Court's signal pronouncement, despite her having won a massive mandate in 1971 and a decisive war that carved a new nation out of Pakistan in December the same year. People were restive — she had not delivered on her electoral promises in the Lok Sabha polls. In July 1973, Chimanbhai Patel challenged her authority to nominate a chief minister in Gujarat after she was forced to remove Ghanshyam Oza.

The 10-day long railway strike in May 1974 was the manifestation of growing restiveness all over the country. The Gujarat students' Nav Nirman movement — Jayaprakash Narayan rebellion against the Gandhi Raj — were other indicators when the two disasters struck her in the face.

Those 13 days were the most eventful, with rapidfire political developments. Congress party managers got busy mobilising popular support through public demonstrations to overcome the crisis. Hordes of sloganeers were put on a literal circus show outside Indira Gandhi’s residence. A new dimension was added to Indian politics, with parties depending on mobilised crowds to demonstrate their strength.

Sanjay Gandhi firmly took the reins in his hands. A coterie of leaders with the then Congress president, Dev Kant Barooah, carried out Sanjay's grim dictates without question. Sanjay had prevailed upon Indira Gandhi to not give up her seat of power. Every night, there were high-level confabulations to assess the next move from the Opposition. The coterie also wanted to ensure that there were no demands from within the Congress for Indira's resignation.

Only Chandrashekhar publicly reminded Indira Gandhi of her political and moral obligation. The coterie sensed a danger from Jagjivan Ram alone, senior-most minister with a wide base among Dalit members but Indira Gandhi manoeuvred to secure an assurance from him not to stake his claim in the event of her being forced to step down.

At the meeting of the Congress Members of Parliament in the Central Hall on June 24, four days after a huge rally on the Boat Club lawns that Barooah made his infamous statement, "Indira is India and India is Indira," Yashwant Rao Chavan, then home minister, also had a similar quotable quote: "What happens to Indira happens to India." Jagjivan Ram had not indulged in such dramatic expressions but left no one in doubt who he stood by.

Sanjay Gandhi wanted the rally speech by Indira Gandhi to be broadcast live over the government media, but the then minister of state, Inder Kumar Gujral, refused to allow the government media to be utilised for party purposes. Nevertheless, the Boat Club Rally on June 20 that year was massive because the chief ministers of neighbouring states spared no effort in herding the crowds together.

Indira Gandhi moved the Supreme Court to seek relief from the High Court's ruling. And she got a reprieve, with the single judge, V Krishna Iyer, holding that she need not resign till the final disposal of her appeal in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Opposition leaders from the Congress (Old), the Socialists, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, and the Bharatiya Lok Dal agitated outside Rashtrapati Bhavan after their massive meeting. The entire Opposition — barring the Left — united in demand for her resignation.

The meeting set the tone for the Emergency, lest the Opposition took to streets to force her to resign. At a closed-door meeting at Indira Gandhi's residence on June 24, a plan was put in place to declare Emergency and nab all senior leaders under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).

At the hurriedly summoned Cabinet ministers' meeting at midnight on June 25, Indira Gandhi revealed her plan for Emergency. Home minister K Brahmanand Reddy was rushed to President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed with the proclamation. But it was only a formality: long before Ahmed had signed, action had already been initiated with arrest of nearly 139 prominent senior leaders.

At 8.20 am on June 26, Indira Gandhi informed the country of an internal Emergency, and blanket censorship. In fact, the authorities ensured that no newspaper in Delhi was published that day. In one fell swoop, democracy went down the tubes.