Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Ramlal on Saturday said that the large-scale participation of RSS workers in protests during the Emergency played a key role in forcing the then Indira Gandhi-led government to hold general elections in 1977, reported PTI.

Speaking at the concluding function of the RSS Konkan division meeting, Ramlal said that if RSS volunteers had not joined the “Satyagraha” movement in large numbers and filled prisons during the Emergency period, India may have continued under an authoritarian regime for a much longer time.