All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake.

However Mujibur Rahman's pro-India policies antagonised many in Bangladeshi politics and the military who feared that Bangladesh had become a client state of India. The nobility responded by rallying around the Jana Sangh and other right-wing parties that stood in opposition to Gandhi's attempts to abolish royal privileges.

She served as the Chief of Staff of her father's highly centralized administration between 1947 and 1964 and came to wield considerable unofficial influence in government. Gandhi also presided over a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 during which Indira Gandhi ruled by decree and made lasting changes to the constitution of India.