Emergency ends; post-Emergency elections

Who: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ended the Emergency and called elections; the Janata-led opposition; and the Shiromani Akali Dal, whose Save Democracy Morcha defied the Emergency from Sri Akal Takht Sahib. Parkash Singh Badal, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Jagdev Singh Talwandi, Mohan Singh Tur and Atma Singh were the first five Akali leaders to court arrest, according to a 2000 letter to The Tribune by Tarlochan Singh.

What: The Emergency began on June 25, 1975. The Akali Dal resolved on June 30 to oppose it and on July 7 launched the Morcha, with volunteers courting arrest daily. The Sikh Research Institute, citing the historian J.S. Grewal, says nearly 40,000 Akalis were arrested; Tarlochan Singh puts the figure at more than 50,000. On January 18, 1977, Gandhi called fresh elections and released political prisoners, and the Lok Sabha was dissolved two days later. She and her son Sanjay both lost their seats, the Emergency officially ended on March 21, and Morarji Desai took office as Prime Minister of a Janata-led government on March 24.

In Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats the Akali Dal won nine, Janata-side candidates (listed as BLD by IndiaVotes) three and the CPI(M) one. Congress won none, although it still polled 34.85 percent. Talwandi won Ludhiana and Tohra won Patiala. In the Assembly election that followed, the Akali Dal won 58 of 117 seats, Janata 25, Congress 17, the CPI(M) 8 and the CPI 7. Badal was sworn in as chief minister on June 20, with President's rule revoked, and Tohra, then SGPC president, and Talwandi, then Akali Dal president, stood beside him. His government lasted almost three years.

Where: Amritsar, where the Morcha was run from Sri Akal Takht Sahib, and across Punjab, with the Lok Sabha result decided in Delhi and the swearing-in at Chandigarh.

Why it mattered: It brought the Akali Dal back to power. A Congress government had taken office in 1972, when the Akali Dal won only 24 seats and the Congress 66 in a House of 104 (the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism writes 24 of 117, the size of the House at the 1977 election), and Punjab was under President's rule before the 1977 vote. At a Chandigarh rally in 1977 Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit said that Punjab alone had organised large-scale resistance to the Emergency, as the Sikh Research Institute records.