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My first working experience in India came in mid summer of 1975.
I had visited the country earlier as a "back-packer." India with its image of gurus, mysticism and
ancient culture was a must visit to any long-haired traveler of early 1970's.
But when NBC News assigned me to Delhi in July 1975, it was a shock. Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi had turned what had always been proclaimed as the world's largest democracy into an authoritarian state.
Following a court ruling that Gandhi was guilty on several count of election malpractice, a widespread
campaign of civil-disobedience was organized by the opposition Janata Party. Calls mounted for
Gandhi's resignation.
In response, Mrs. Gandhi, on the advice of her son Sanjay, put her autocratic face forward and
persuaded the nation's President to declare a national "emergency" for at least six
months. On June 26th, 1975, the nation was plunged into a period of massive arrests, including those of
virtually all political opposition leaders.
As I traveled around India, officials tried to limit our freedom as reporters. Just
before my arrival, my friend, Lew Simons of the Washington Post had been expelled from the
country. As I visited Gujurat state, security officials were assigned to tail me wherever I went.
When I met Mrs. Gandhi, a little over a month after the "emergency" declaration in August 1975,
she had announced a Twenty Point program to put the economy right.It was a far reaching program
which energized the economy using severe orders: punishing tax dodgers, smuggler, black marketers
and filling the nation's prisons with real and political prisoners alike.
Her propaganda machine was working overtime and the proclamations: "India is Indira
and Indira is India" and "Indira stands between order and chaos" were repeated everywhere.
I was struck by the warmth and friendliness of Mrs. Gandhi.
She knew how to put on the charm when she wanted to.
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1998
Between 1975 and 1998, I visited India often, but the resumption of nuclear tests by the government
of Prime Minister Atal Berari Vajpayee sent me scurrying back. Rightly or wrongly, the specter had
been raised of nuclear war on the sub-continent.
But in India, I found, there was no mood of fear of confligration; rather there was great pride
and a sense that at last the world was paying attention to a nation that had long been maligned
and neglected. For ABC News, I filed this dispatch from Delhi.
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