EDITORIAL: Mrs Indira Gandhi has struck a mighty blow at the assorted Oppo­sition movement. … In intensity and extent … the blow recalls to mind the British crackdown in August 1942 on the Indian National Congress in the wake of the ‘Quit India’ notice. … …[E]ver since it attained independence, India has been trying to build up for itself an image of a country dedicated to … democracy. In this it has been fairly successful. Sympathetic Western observers have acclaimed India as the world’s largest democracy... . Many people throughout the world will be wondering whether this image ... will survive the events of the last week of June. …

…[O]ne might also observe … that the eclipse of democracy in India will encourage the growth of an anti-democratic trend throughout the Third World. The latest Indian events have an object lesson for those in the Third World countries who are advancing the cause of democracy by working as critics and opponents of their respective governments. If democracy means the limitation of power for those in authority, it also means a limitation of some sort on the opposition in conducting its activities against the government.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2025