In 1977, during the Emergency, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called a general election. Her private secretary R.K. Dhawan later explained why, in an interview with Karan Thapar on India Today television. “She believed the IB report that she would get a majority,” he said. “It was P N Dhar who handed over an Intelligence Bureau report that prompted her to declare elections.”
Dhawan also said that she “was not aware of her son’s activities during Emergency and no complaints against him ever reached her.” She lost.