India—Decline into Police State

At a recent gathering of the Congress party of India held in Chandigarh, Mrs. Gandhi presided over the meeting from a high platform, looking down upon her courtiers. The image evoked was that of Catherine the Great, haughty and contemptuous. Directly behind her was a huge portrait of herself; on one side, a portrait of her father, Nehru; on the other side, one of Mahatma Gandhi. The Congress party, with two-thirds of the lower house, had made a number of decisions that were then ratified by the subservient Parliament: to postpone elections scheduled this year to the following year (this can be repeated again in 1977); to prolong the life of the present Parliament for another year; to prepare a fundamental revision of the Constitution so ...