25 June, 1975: A black dot on Indian democracy

Emergency was imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975 which remained in effect till March 21, 1977.
Invoking article 352 of the Indian Constitution, Gandhi granted herself extraordinary powers and launched a massive crackdown on civil liberties and political opposition. The Government used police forces across the country to place thousands of protestors and strike leaders under preventive detention. Vijayaraje Scindia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Raj Narain, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Arun Jaitley, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Gayatri Devi, the dowager queen of Jaipur and other protest leaders were immediately arrested.