I look at it as a period when the country was very disciplined. Of course you had the downside of the arrests and the detentions. But we must understand: all the trains worked on time, everything was on time. There was discipline and the law and order was perfect. As I said, there was the downside of the arrests. I still remember, there were huge law and order issues across the country at the time when the Emergency was imposed. I recall Mrs Indira Gandhi toying with the idea and (West Bengal Chief Minister and close Indira aide) Siddhartha Shankar Ray and (Congress president) D K Barooah etc insisting that we declare the Emergency. And Sanjay (Gandhi) saying, yes, there is no other choice.

* How long before the actual proclamation of the Emergency were you aware that something like this was going to happen? After all, it was a very small circle of people who knew…

I was at their house when the decision was taken… I was at the Prime Minister’s house. I think it was on June 24, the day before. And then the thing was to alert everybody and indicate that something is going to happen without saying it would be the Emergency. I did not understand the Constitutional position and got to know of it only at that time. On the 24th, besides me, there were Ray, Barooah and, as far as I remember, (Congress leader and Indira aide) Rajni Patel.

* Do you think the country can ever see the imposition of the Emergency again?

It is already happening. You are seeing how the press is being throttled. You must admit it. You are seeing how TV channels are being suppressed. At that time you did not have so much TV as we have today. You are seeing how journalists who are speaking their mind are being suppressed. And I do not even have to say what is happening to other democratic institutions. It is all very apparent what’s happening today.

* How do you see the role of the media during the Emergency? You were appointed as a government nominee on the Board of Directors of The Indian Express…

I must say I had a lot of respect for Mr Ramnath Goenka; B D Goenka, his son, was a friend of mine. When Ramnath ji had a heart attack in 1976 and was admitted to a hospital in Kolkata, I went to meet him. I held his hand and said to him, ‘I will hold no Board meetings until you are out, because we want to make you a party to all the decisions’. Then there was the issue of (The Indian Express senior journalist) Kuldip Nayar, who was in jail. I told Sanjay that he must be released.

* In her book on the Emergency, Coomi Kapoor, who was then in The Indian Express, wrote that you confirmed to Nayar that Indira Gandhi was going to announce the general elections in 1977. What is your recollection of this episode?

Yes, yes. Mrs Gandhi was always for calling elections. She said we have had enough of this. I could see it in her tone and tenor — that she wanted to call the elections. I remember around New Year’s time, in December 1976, Sanjay and I had gone to Srinagar. At that time there were no cellphones. He booked a call to Mrs Gandhi, and she told him, come back immediately. So Sanjay flew back. And then she told him, ‘I am going to lift the Emergency’. He said no. She said, ‘I am going to have elections’. He said, ‘No, you should first lift the Emergency and then call elections’. She said, ‘No, I will first call elections’. And the first thing Mrs Gandhi did after the elections, when she lost, was to call a Cabinet meeting and lift the Emergency.

* What is your view of your friend Sanjay Gandhi as a politician?

Well, he was misunderstood because he was a person who worked 18 hours a day. Right? He was fanatically nationalistic. So people sometimes misunderstood him. And his family planning (scheme)… they (the people) thought this was very heavy handed. But it was necessary for the country because of the bursting population. And he is the one who gave the slogan ‘Hum do, hamare do’.