The dramatic scenes that unfolded in Kolkata during the Enforcement Directorate’s raid on I-CAP properties, when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was seen intervening and moving documents and folders away from search sites, have revived memories of an equally dramatic moment from India’s political past. More than four decades ago, after the Emergency and the crushing defeat of the Congress in the 1977 general elections, a newly installed Janata Party government sent the Central Bureau of Investigation to arrest former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. That episode, however, carried its own peculiar twist, involving an unlikely household appliance that reportedly played a role in destroying sensitive papers.
The events of October 3, 1977, have been vividly chronicled by American author Katherine Frank in her book Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. According to her account, the arrest of Indira Gandhi was anticipated by both her and the nation at large. That afternoon, as her elder son Sanjay Gandhi and his wife Maneka were engaged in a game of badminton, an unmarked vehicle arrived at 12 Willingdon Crescent, then the residence of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Two CBI officers stepped out of the car, approached the house, and informed Indira Gandhi that she was under arrest. Calm and composed, she told the officers that she needed time to pack before accompanying them. The officers waited outside for several hours as she remained indoors, finally emerging only around 8 pm. This delay, Frank notes, was significant, as it allowed time for phone calls to be made to the press, party workers, friends, and supporters, ensuring that news of her arrest spread rapidly across the country.
It was during this interval that a curious rumour took shape. Frank writes that it was later widely believed that while Indira Gandhi was “packing,” a pasta-making machine belonging to her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi was used as an improvised paper shredder. Sonia Gandhi, who was born in Italy and had only recently arrived in India after her marriage, was known to enjoy making homemade pasta. The same appliance, according to these accounts, was allegedly pressed into service to destroy documents that could have strengthened the case against Indira Gandhi.
The political context of the arrest was fraught. After lifting the Emergency, Indira Gandhi had suffered a historic defeat in the 1977 elections, bringing the Janata Party to power under Prime Minister Morarji Desai. The new government quickly established the Shah Commission, led by former Chief Justice of India J.C. Shah, to investigate alleged excesses committed during the Emergency, including mass arrests and controversial administrative decisions. Indira Gandhi refused to appear before the commission, acting on legal advice and questioning its constitutionality, a move that bought her time but further antagonised the government.
Unwilling to wait for the commission’s findings, the Desai government decided to act. The CBI was instructed to arrest Indira Gandhi, and the events of October 3 unfolded accordingly. When she finally stepped out of her residence in a green-and-white sari, a crowd of journalists and supporters had gathered, alerted by the flurry of phone calls made during the delay. She was escorted into a Hindustan Motors Ambassador car amid intense media attention.
What followed turned the arrest into an embarrassment for the ruling establishment. On the way to the Delhi Police Lines, the convoy was stalled for hours at a railway crossing due to two halted trains. Frank recounts how Indira Gandhi calmly sat on the ground reading a novel, while lawyers, supporters, and officials argued loudly around her. When she was eventually produced before a magistrate, the court found insufficient evidence to justify her detention, and she was released the same day.
Indira Gandhi was arrested again in 1978 after the Lok Sabha expelled her for repeated breaches of privilege and contempt of the House, sending her to Tihar Jail. Even then, she spent only a week in custody, as nationwide protests by her supporters, including dramatic incidents such as the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane, forced the government to release her early.
These arrests, far from ending her career, proved to be a turning point. Indira Gandhi and the Congress used the episodes to rebuild political momentum after their defeat. Within three years, she returned to power with a landslide victory in the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, securing 353 seats for the Congress. In hindsight, historians and commentators have noted that among the many unlikely contributors to that revival may well have been Sonia Gandhi’s unassuming pasta maker, remembered as a curious symbol of survival at one of the Congress party’s lowest moments.
