It was through the non-military arm of the Indian security establishment that Indira Gandhi and her coterie ran India during the Emergency.

Police forces rounded up thousands of her opponents and threw them in jails; tax authorities raided the homes and offices of anyone the ruling elite did not like; laws were twisted to suit her office.

And there were thousands of members of the non-military security establishment—from police constables to income tax officers—who were willing to be vassals of the ruling regime, rather than be protectors of the Constitution, which is what they are hired and paid for by the state. When Prime Minister Gandhi wanted to reconstitute the trust that ran the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, the lieutenant governor cited an obscure rule to requisition the building. Coercive measures were used.

In Haryana, when the people of Uttawar village refused to undergo the sterilisation programme, the district administration disconnected their electricity supply before the police raided the village and rounded up all the men into trucks and took them in to surgery. When Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal wanted to settle a score with a family, the chief secretary acted to satisfy him. The administration created fake claims to go after three generations of the family, detaining them under a draconian law. The youngest of them was denied a job in the judicial services. His father, uncle and grandfather were among those arrested. Similarly, in the national capital, a set of civil servants and police personnel were at Sanjay Gandhi’s command to demolish the slums that were home to hundreds but eyesores to him, to forcibly sterilise thousands, and to round up politicians, journalists and activists. Sometimes, in their desperation to satisfy the masters, they also arrested the wrong guys.

The very same unaccounted part of the administration is also what the ruling elite uses to bestow favours. When Dhirendra Brahmachari, a close associate of the prime minister, wanted to import an aircraft during the Emergency and lied that it was a gift, officials showed great alacrity in clearing red tape to facilitate his outlandish purchase.