45 facts about independent India's darkest hour of Emergency

It was on this day (June 25), in 1975, that Independent India experienced it's darkest hour. An hour that will live long in infamy as one of grave consequences. It has been 45 years since that day, while the emergency might not exist anymore, neither the prime minister who imposed it, if you speak to those who lived through it, you would realise that the scars of The Emergency linger fresh both in the nation's DNA as well as those who experienced the horrors. 

Then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had imposed an emergency, with the help of an order officially issued by the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under the Article 352 of the Indian Constitution, to "control the internal disturbance." She had no opposition left since most of the opposition leaders were put behind bars. Freedom of Press was curtailed, elections were suspended. Several human rights violations were reported in that time, including a forced mass-sterlisation campaign spearheaded by Indira's son Sanjay Gandhi. 

If we go by Home Minister Amit Shah's word, "On this day, 45 years ago one family’s greed for power led to the imposition of the Emergency. Overnight the nation was turned into a prison. The press, courts, free speech...all were trampled over. Atrocities were committed on the poor and downtrodden.

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