FROM THE ARCHIVES: George Fernandes wrote the following for THE WEEK's cover story on Indira Gandhi in the issue dated November 1, 2009. At that time, Fernandes had been unwell for some time. We tried to complete the piece but could not, because of limitations placed on him for health reasons.
We had seen it come a long time ago during the Nehru era. Some of us like Ram Manohar Lohia and I saw that Jawaharlal Nehru was grooming his daughter to take over. It was going to lead to dynastic politics. That is when opposition to Indira started.
Our fears were proved right when she took over and finally imposed the Emergency in 1975. She took special care to imprison me and sent an aircraft to Lucknow to bring me to detention in New Delhi. She turned into a tyrant before our eyes. She was most upset because of the railway strike I had organised across the country. The Emergency was a wake-up call, as people saw a completely different, unknown facet of Indira. She behaved like a tyrant during those days.
