On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad high court held Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractice and barred her from contesting elections for five years. Thirteen days later, she responded by declaring a state of Emergency, which continued for 19 dark months. Democracy was abandoned. Opposition leaders from Jayaprakash Narayan to L K Advani were arrested. The media was censored and shackled.

When she finally ended the Emegency in January 1977 and called elections two months later, the Congress was soundly defeated by the Janata Party, an Opposition alliance assembled by Jayaprakash Narayan and led by Morarji Desai. The Congress won only two seats in north India and both Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay -- who was blamed for the Emergency's worst excesses -- were routed in Rae Bareli and Amethi.

Indira Gandhi was despondent after her defeat, but successive Janata Party governments -- the second led by Charan Singh -- collapsed two years later and she returned to power in January 1980. But triumph was overwhemed by tragedy when Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash on June 23, 1980.

Sonia, Rajiv, Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi's son Varun, who was just two months and 18 days old when his father died, and Indira Gandhi pay homage at Sanjay Gandhi's samadhi.

Also See: 'It was the darkest period of Indian democracy, a blot'