etween 1967 and 1971, Prime Minister 

Indira Gandhi came to obtain near-absolute control over the

government and the Indian National Congress party, as well as a huge majority in Parliament. The
first was achieved by concentrating the central government's power within the Prime Minister's
Secretariat, rather than the Cabinet, whose elected members she saw as a threat and distrusted.
For this, she relied on her principal secretary, P. N. Haksar, a central figure in Indira's inner circle of
advisors. Further, Haksar promoted the idea of a "committed bureaucracy" that required hitherto-
impartial government officials to be "committed" to the ideology of the ruling party of the day.
Within the Congress, Indira ruthlessly outmanoeuvred her rivals, forcing the party to split in 1969—
into the Congress (O) (comprising the old-guard known as the "Syndicate") and her Congress (R). A
majority of the All-India Congress Committee and Congress MPs sided with the prime minister.
Indira's party was of a different breed from the Congress of old, which had been a robust institution
with traditions of internal democracy. In the Congress (R), on the other hand, members quickly
realised that their progress within the ranks depended solely on their loyalty to Indira Gandhi and her
family, and ostentatious displays of sycophancy became routine. In the coming years, Indira's
influence was such that she could install hand-picked loyalists as chief ministers of states, rather
than their being elected by the Congress legislative party.
Indira's ascent was backed by her charismatic appeal among the masses that was aided by her
government's near-radical leftward turns. These included the July 1969 nationalisation of several
major banks and the September 1970 abolition of the privy purse; these changes were often done
suddenly, via ordinance, to the shock of her opponents. She had strong support in the
disadvantaged sections—the poor, Dalits, women and minorities. Indira was seen as "standing for
socialism in economics and secularism in matters of religion, as being pro-poor and for the
development of the nation as a whole." [4]
 India, "The Emergency" refers to a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country. Officially issued by
President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution because of the prevailing
"internal disturbance", the Emergency was in effect from 25 June 1975 until its withdrawal on 21
March 1977. The order bestowed upon the Prime Minister the authority to rule by decree, allowing
elections to be suspended and civil liberties to be curbed. For much of the Emergency, most of
Indira Gandhi's political opponents were imprisoned and the press was censored. Several
other human rights violations were reported from the time, including a mass forced
sterilization campaign spearheaded by Sanjay Gandhi, the Prime Minister's son. The Emergency is
one of the most controversial periods of independent India's history.
The final decision to impose an emergency was proposed by Indira Gandhi, agreed upon by
the president of India, and thereafter ratified by the cabinet and the parliament (from July to August
1975), based on the rationale that there were imminent internal and external threats to the Indian
state.[1][2]