On Wednesday, 25 June 1975, Mrs Indira Gandhi took the fateful decision to clamp Emergency on the country. The reign of terror had begun.

The nightmare of repression, fear and persecution which followed for the next nineteen months is now too well-known. The few persons who pumped a stream of venomous fear into the lives of ordinary men and women of India have been removed from power but memories of their dark deeds will perhaps remain forever etched in the minds of all those among us who had either a close brush with the fearful phantom of the Emergency, or who were victims of the power-crazed authorities, or who simply watched helplessly and suffered.