I was merely the first of half a dozen or so foreign correspondents to be expelled. Having imposed the Emergency, Gandhi canceled elections, locked up hundreds of her political opponents, embarked on a mass sterilization campaign in which the government forced more than 6 million teenage boys and men to undergo vasectomies, and censored the domestic and foreign press. If Bradlee would 'voluntarily' withdraw me, the Post would be permitted to continue operating in India with another journalist. The Indian ambassador in Washington called Executive Editor Ben Bradlee and insisted that my story was untrue, pointing out that no other foreign correspondent had written it. Gandhi's refusal to resign.'Īs with the BBC's broadcast about Modi stirring the anti-Muslim violence, my quoting in an influential American newspaper that Indian military officers were displeased with Gandhi's illegal behavior was a step too far.

Resentment is said to be particularly sharp in the army, where officers are known to be annoyed over Mrs. 'According to a military source,' I wrote in my piece for the Post, 'tension is growing in the armed forces, which have a long and proud tradition of remaining out of politics.

They confirmed my observation and, when I pressed them, expressed their own views. I returned to my office and telephoned two army officers I knew personally. Their frenzied cries of 'Indira Gandhi zindabad' ('long live Indira Gandhi') reverberated off the capital city's red sandstone walls.Ĭovering what would turn out to be the last of those events, I noticed dozens of close-cropped, combat-booted young men dressed in civilian clothing controlling the demonstrators. She trucked hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets of New Delhi. To put this in context, one year earlier, President Richard Nixon faced similar humiliation following the Watergate impeachment hearings. The court ordered her to resign and to forego all political activity for six years. The High Court in her hometown, Allahabad, had found her guilty of illegally using military aircraft to shuttle party functionaries around the country during her reelection campaign. My sin? An article I had written in The Washington Post the previous day that shook Gandhi.Īt the time, Gandhi's political future was under unprecedented challenge. Police hustled me onto an airliner bound for Thailand.

Early the next morning, a white-uniformed customs official confiscated stacks of reporter's notebooks that I was trying to take out of the country.

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