New Delhi, June 30 -- Trains and aircraft have emergency exits. Not so with politics. I vividly recall the day 50 years ago. I was attending a Youth Animators' Training Programme in Allahabad, the epicentre of the Emergency earthquake. It was promulgated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975.

The day after the declaration, a classmate of mine, who was an army officer, called to meet with me. He was in Allahabad, but I can't recall how we got in touch. He picked me up in a non-descript battered jeep, the type that military intelligence uses to avoid detection. Over tea, he quizzed me about the programme that I was attending. At the time, I didn't fully comprehend the portents of what was about to unfold.

A few months later, un...