The Congress won an unimpressive majority in the 1967 general election -- 283 out of 516 Lok Sabha seats, its worst electoral performance until then -- and lost power in the Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal assemblies. The outcome was seen as a personal defeat for Indira Gandhi under whose leadership the Congress fought the election.

That setback made her determined to cast the Congress in her own image. Two years later she split the party, got rid of the old guard, who she felt, obstructed her vision. She fought the March 1971 general election with the slogan 'Garibi Hatao' and restored the Congress to its old winning ways.

Nine months later, she won an even more resounding victory when the Indian defence forces defeated Pakistan in battle, a victory which led to the birth of Bangladesh from what was known as East Pakistan.

In August 1971, she signed a treaty of friendship and understanding with the then Soviet Union, a decision that greatly angered President Richard M Nixon, who often described her in unprintable language.

Nixon would famously dispatch the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier into the Bay of Bengal during the 1971 war under the mistaken impression that it would scare Indira Gandhi to call off the Indian Army's campaign in East Pakistan. It had the reverse effect and laid the foundation for her pronounced anti-Americanism -- ironically for so Westernised an Indian leader -- which she disguised under her vocal leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Indira Gandhi with Richard and Pat Nixon, and (below) with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev

Also See: Indira was uncomfortable with educated people