Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed:
Puppet President
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The President of India is the constitutional head of the country. But there are few incidents when Presidents have spoken against the wrong doings of the government of the day.

It became more apparent than ever when Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was the President and the then prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency curbing the freedom of the press and imprisoning all political opponents.

At midnight June 25, 1975, President Ahmed signed a proclamation declaring a state of 'Internal Emergency' on the grounds that 'a grave emergency exists whereby the security of India is threatened by internal disturbances'.

It was done under the instruction of Indira, and Ahmed, as a President, failed to stand against her ruthless authoritarianism.

It was the test of Fakhruddin's moral courage and he failed.

In fact, Ahmed's acceptance and signature was a mere formality. The government had started crackdown on political opponents, students and trade unionists hours before the President's approval.

It was an open secret that Ahmed, a long-time Congressman and former minister in the Congress cabinet, was acting at Indira's behest.

The police had arrested 139 prominent senior leaders even before the President's endorsement of the Emergency.

Indira attempted to change the existing laws with the help of Parliament, thus protecting herself from legal prosecution once the Emergency was revoked.

She utilised Ahmed to put a stamp on all the 'extraordinary' laws that she made bypassing the Parliament.

Ahmed was elected President of the Indian Republic on August 20, 1974, and died in office on February 11, 1977.