It took him 12 years, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally brought the world’s most-populous nation to the precipice of an all-powerful, one-party state.
He isn’t the first to try. In 1971, Indira Gandhi led her party to a landslide victory, only to have her own election challenged for malpractices. When the judiciary stripped her of her parliamentary seat in 1975, she didn’t step down. Instead, she declared a national emergency, suspended civil liberties and forced constitutional changes through a hollowed-out parliament while opposition leaders languished in jail.
Yet, even Gandhi’s iron grip slipped; within two years, she succumbed to democratic pressure and called fresh elections that eventually ousted her as prime minister.
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