Do you know how emergency started in India?

Indira Gandhi had contested as a MP for Rae Bareli in 1971. Her opponent was the Dalit leader Raj Naraian. Indira won the election easily as did Congress. Narain later petitioned the High Court alleging that Indira had......

Committed electoral malpractice during her campaign (she used government funds/machinery to get elected which is illegal). Back then no one thought that any judge would rule against Indira and that the petition was futile.

But this judge was courageous and did!

The effect was that her election was nullified. She was no longer a member of parliament! With inflation rising and poverty rife, there was a risk she would lose an election if it was held at the time (plus she was effectively "tainted"). So to save her power, she declared....

national emergency. This stayed in place until March 1977 when an astrologer predicted to her that if an election was held at the time, she would win.

So she decided to call an election and lost. And emergency ended.