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1947-2008-India-Roundup
Indira Gandhi decided to play big sister. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, passed in 1969, came into effect. The BBC was asked to close down operations in India for broadcasting a French film, L’Inde Fantome, by Louis Malle, which sought to depict the “real India”. A nationwide land-grab movement by the cpi, Praja Socialist Party and Sanghata Socialist Party fizzled out with the arrest of 4,500 people. The same year, communist leader Jyoti Basu escaped an attempt on his life in Patna. The federal structure wobbled, with Tamil Nadu demanding devolution of power. In calling for early general elections and appealing to the electorate with a new socialist agenda and that famous campaign line. “They say Indira hatao, I say garibi hatao”, she set in motion a new era of populism in Indian politics.
ROMANCING A NEW STAR
Shakti Samanta’s Kati Patang became a hit at the box office not only for its tear-jerker storyline, but also for its music, which established Kishore Kumar as the voice of Rajesh Khanna. The film featured hit songs like Na koi umang hai and Yeh jo mohabbat hai. Asha Parekh’s performance as a runaway bride pretending to be a widow was riveting. Khanna’s star was on the ascendant.
FIRST CUT
- Fourteen-year-old Ved Prakash won the first gold for India in the light flyweight wrestling competition at the Commonwealth Games.
- Nagendra singh became the first Indian president of the International Court of Justice.
- The foundation stone of India’s first and the world’s largest coal-based fertilizer plant was laid at Talcher, Orissa.
The controversial 2,244-metre-long Farakka Barrage of West Bengal, built for the sharing of the Ganga waters, was completed in 1970, but the water was diverted only in 1975.
“WE CAN’T REMAIN VICTIMS OF MARKET FORCES.”
Y.B.Chavan
So said Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan during his term as Finance Minister. Through his blazing political career as the right hand man of Indira Gandhi, the Maratha icon who started out as the first chief minister of Maharashtra held several key Cabinet portfolios. His decisiveness as defence minister during the 1965 war didn’t go unnoticed, and in 1970, with the reins of the Home Ministry in his hands, he was the one to introduce the bill for annulling the princes’ privileges in Parliament.
TRUE LIES
The cloud of mystery surrounding Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death darkened as the Government ruled out a judicial probe into the case. Shastri had died in January 1966, after signing a no-war agreement with Pakistan President Ayub Khan in Tashkent, Soviet Union. He was said to have died of a heart attack that night, but many still believe there was more to it.
ELSEWHERE…
- Israel launched its first ever overland assault on Lebanon. Jordan cracked down on Palestinians, driving them into Lebanon (below).
- Tension between China and the Soviet Union mounted, with each accusing the other of preparing for war.
- Japan launched its first satellite, ohsumi-1, becoming the fourth nation with a space rocket powerful enough to launch satellites into Earth’s orbit, after the Soviet Union, the US and France.
36,000 miles was the distance traveled by Indira Gandhi between December 1970 and the elections that were held ten week later. She addressed almost 300 meetings and was seen or heard by an estimated 20 million people.
Courtesy By India Today
