CURIOUS KISSA

REWIND

Despite all his alleged atrocities during the Emergency, Sanjay Gandhi was booked in a relatively inconsequential case, the disappearance of the reels of Kissa Kursi Ka, a veiled satire on the establishment produced by Janata Party MP and filmmaker Amrit Nahata. The film, which had been disposed of by Gandhi and the then I&B minister V.C. Shukla when it came up before the Censor Board in April 1975, blew up into one of the biggest controversies of 1978 when, on May 5, Gandhi was remanded to custody and his bail cancelled.

WASHED OUT

Floods in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar and West Bengal killed 1,200 and displaced 320 crore people. The Yamuna rose 1.83 m above safety level.

FIRST CUT

India’s first and the world’s second test tube baby, Durga, was born in Calcutta on October 3. Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay performed the in-vitro fertilisation.

DID YOU KNOW

“Flying saucers” were sighted from Mumbai to Udaipur. It prompted the Physical Research Laboratory to lead India’s first investigation into the UFO phenomenon.

“LET PEOPLE COME TO SEE ZEENAT’S TITS.”
RAJ KAPOOR on his film Satyam...

Zeenat Aman bared all in Raj Kapoor’s X-rated Satyam Shivam Sundaram. While the film may not have made a dent in the box office, Kapoor had an acute sense of the tastes of his film-viewing public when he said, “Let people come to see Zeenat’s tits, they will go out remembering the film.” Aman had decided to win the role for herself. She arrived at Kapoor’s doorstep to claim the part. The girl he had in mind had to be plain-looking and willing to be made up to look scarred and burnt. Aman was attractive, no great shakes as an actress and spoke Hindi with an accent. However, she had herself made up to look scarred, dressed in a costume from the film and burst into Kapoor’s cottage. Flabbergasted, Kapoor called his wife, “Come and see what this girl has done.” Mrs Kapoor arrived with a gold coin to bless Aman, and Kapoor knew he had found his heroine.

CAPTAIN M.M. CHOPRA father of Sanjay and Geeta Chopra, who were slain in September
“These days no mother and father feel secure about their children. It is mine today; tomorrow it can be another’s.”

Winning India

US President Jimmy Carter arrived on a 48-hour state visit to India. Carter’s mother, Lillian, was an Indophile, having spent time in Vikhroli in Maharashtra as a Peace Corps volunteer. After his visit, a village, Carterpuri, was named after him in Haryana.

ELSEWHERE...

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, prime minister of Pakistan, was sentenced to death by hanging.

The Camp David Accords were signed between Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt. Later in the year, the two were also jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their breakthrough.

The Spanish Constitution was approved in a referendum. In 1977, Spain held its first democratic elections since the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

800 was Delhi’s crime rate, or number of crimes per lakh of population. In comparison, Mumbai’s crime rate was only 550 while Chennai’s stood at 600. This, despite Delhi having the highest concentration of police in the country with 25 policemen per 100 sq km of area.

1979: INDIA AT 60

SHAKY GROUND

PICTURE SPEAK

OVER AND OUT: Morarji Desai

REWIND

After a brief two-year stint, the first non-Congress government to rule at the Centre, the Janata Party regime led by Morarji Desai collapsed due to various internal contradictions. Deputy Prime Minister Charan Singh raised the issue of dual membership of some of the senior ministers who were also members of the Jan Sangh, the precursor to BJP. Desai, alienated from the Cabinet, the party, the administration and the people, chose to remain unperturbed and indifferent. Result: Singh pulled out of the government forcing Desai to quit office. President N. Sanjeeva Reddy had to invite Singh to form the government since the opposition Congress party decided to extend its support to his Bharatiya Lok Dal. The Jat euphoria was, however, shortlived as Singh quit five months later carrying with him the dubious record of being the only head of government to leave office without ever facing Parliament.

STOOPING TO CONQUER

The Janata Party, in a first, threatened to call for the impeachment of President Sanjeeva Reddy when after the fall of the Desai Government, he called upon Charan Singh, who had a letter of support from the Congress, rather than the Janata Party leader Jagjivan Ram, to form the new government in July.

FIRST CUT

India’s first remote sensing low orbit earth observation satellite, Bhaskaran 1, carrying tv and microwave cameras, was launched by the Russian launch vehicle Intercosmos.

DID YOU KNOW

Ten days before the Naga massacre in the Doyang Valley in Assam, a boy had run in from across the Indo-Nepal border, warning all, including the police, about the coming attack. No one paid heed and on January 5, Naga warriors went on a 12-hour rampage that left over 1,000 dead.

“I WANT THIS PARTY AND GOVERNMENT TO STAY.”
Chaudhary Charan Singh

So said a confident leader of the Bharatiya Lok Dal, Chaudhary Charan Singh, when he became prime minister on July 28 with the support of the very same Indira Gandhi who had jailed him during the Emergency in 1975. But she hardly let him settle in, before withdrawing support when Jagjivan Ram tabled a no-confidence motion, leaving Singh heading a caretaker government till her return to power in 1980.

JAYAPRAKASH NARAYAN to S.M. Joshi, hours before his death on Oct 8
“I am sleeping and forgetting all that has gone before... I feel my life’s sun is setting... for me to rise no more.”

SOFT FOCUS ON HARD FACTS

Yash Chopra’s Kaala Patthar was the director’s fourth collaboration with Amitabh Bachchan, about poorly treated coal mine workers and a humiliated Naval officer. A soulful soundtrack and strong performances by Shatrughan Sinha and Shashi Kapoor made it a classic to remember.

In the Name of the Poor

On October 17, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for taking care of the poor in Calcutta’s slums and dedicated the prize money of Rs 15,20,000 to helping them. “I am grateful to receive the Nobel in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of all those who feel unwanted, unloved in society,” she said while accepting the honour.

ELSEWHERE...

Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda as Tanzania-backed rebels seized control. Amin fled to Saudi Arabia.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran after he returned to the country from a 15-year exile.

Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan (right) after a second Leftist coup which put a more pro-Moscow regime in power in Kabul. Babrak Karmal became the new puppet leader and Soviet troops bolstered his rule against Muslim resistance fighters.

150 lakh was the total number of bureaucrats serving in the government in 1979. In 1970, the figure stood at 105 lakh. In a similar vein, the bill of central expenditure totalled Rs 6,000 crore, up from Rs 1,661 crore in 1970.

1980: INDIA AT 60

SETTING SON

REWIND

Sanjay Gandhi’s death was as sudden as it was violent. It was also self-indulgent. Warned often about his dangerous aerobatics at the Delhi Flying Club, Gandhi pushed his S2-A Pitts biplane too far and too low on that fateful June day. Mrs Gandhi suddenly found herself without her pointman and airline pilot Rajiv Gandhi found himself a new career. Sanjay’s death left a big question mark over Delhi skies: would he have given Indian politics the catharsis it so badly needed? Would he have ushered in a one-party dictatorship? Would he have become prime minister?

FIRST CUT

Prakash Padukone became the first Indian to win the prestigious All England Open badminton title when he beat Indonesian Liem Swie King. It was the only All England finals that King lost between 1978 and 1981. In 1981, Padukone faltered in his title defence, as King proved too good and too steady to be beaten at the pinnacle of the sport once again.

THE LAST LEAP

India won a hockey gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, beating Spain 4-3 in the finals. This was the last gold India would ever win at the Games, in both individual and team events.

DID YOU KNOW

On June 24, just a day after the death of Sanjay Gandhi, President V.V. Giri also passed away in Chennai at the age of 85. A national mourning was declared after the twin tragedies.

“YOU CAN’T SHAKE HANDS WITH A CLENCHED FIST.”
Indira Gandhi

She saw her plans pan out immaculately as the Charan Singh government collapsed even before it was able to get to its. feet. With the incumbent Janata Party fractured by infighting and losing credibility before the public with its incessant anti-Indira rhetoric, all the former prime minister had to do to bring the house of cards crashing down was coin a classic line like “Choose a Government that Works” to seal the fate of her opponents.

L.K. ADVANI about the newly-formed BJP
“I do not mind if today somebody regards the Bharatiya Janata Party as a Hindu party. ”

ANGER RIGHT

Govind Nihalani gave a hint of things to come with his directorial debut, Aakrosh. The film, featuring the art frat including Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil and Amrish Puri, was based on a true story that was adapted for screen by Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar. The hard-hitting film established Nihalani as a no-nonsense director.

ELSEWHERE...

Yugoslav President Tito died and the funeral ceremony saw more than 140 state delegations in Belgrade from all over the world.

The Summer Olympic Games kicked off in Moscow. Sixty-six nations, including the US, Canada, West Germany and Japan, boycotted the games in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Former Beatle John Lennon died after being shot outside the Dakota Entrance of his New York City home, by Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan who had taken his autograph earlier in the day.

56 per cent of Indian women were in the age group of 15 to 19. The figure was higher than in many developed countries, where it was 39 per cent. This, despite India’s infant mortality rate being a high 113 per 1,000 live births.

1981: INDIA AT 60

KILLER RAILS

REWIND

It was a year when death stalked India’s rail network, the second-largest in the world. Between January and September alone, there were 526 train derailments. Railway Minister Kedar Nath Pande was already neck-deep in trouble over the rising number of accidents, when on June 6, seven of the nine bogies of the overcrowded 416 Down derailed over a bridge while crossing river Bagmati at Balaghat in Bihar. The reason for the accident remained shrouded in mystery, as did the death toll immediately after the accident. The final figure was pegged to be at least 400.

ALMOST THERE

Vijay Amritraj stumbled at the quarter-final stage for the second time at the Wimbledon Championships when he went down to American Jimmy Connors in five sets.

DID YOU KNOW

J.R.D. Tata chose Ratan Tata, an outside contender, as his successor to the Tata empire over much stronger probables like Rusi Mody, Freddie Mehta and Nani Palkhivala.

FIRST CUT

The International Monetary Fund announced a mammoth Rs 5,000-crore loan to India in December, the highest in the fund’s history.

“I AM GOING TO STAY.”
A.R. Antulay

Maharashtra Chief Minister A.R. Antulay may have said of Arun Shourie in the wake of the Trustgate revelations, “He is not the conscience keeper of the nation”. But Shourie’s meticulous research into Antulay’s fraudulent Rs 50-crore Indira Gandhi Pratibha Pratisthan Trust Fund scandal—wherein Antulay asked builders to donate to the trust in exchange for favoursmeant he couldn’t dodge the fire of the 14 column-inch bombshell Shourie dropped on his readers on August 31. Another feather in the firebrand investigative reporter’s cap.

From Pune to Oregon

On May 1, having discoursed daily for nearly 15 years, Bhagwan Rajneesh aka Osho entered a three-and-a-half-year period of public silence. On June 1, he left for the US, moving to a farm in Oregon with his followers.

MAGIC CARPET RIDE

Salman Rushdie took the world—and the Booker Prize jury—on a magic-carpet ride across the Indian sub-continent with his Midnight’s Children. With his brand of masala magic realism, the Bombay-born, Cambridge-educated writer redrew the map of Indian literature in English and provided a generation of immigrant authors a template to translate their essentially Indian experiences into something universally palatable. The no-show Grimus far behind now, this was a new, quirkier Sir Salman on display.

ELSEWHERE...

IBM introduces the personal computer, IBM PC, heralding the start of the computing age.

John Lennon’s (Just Like) Starting Over and the album Double Fantasy topped music charts just weeks after his death.

Ronald Reagan (below) was sworn in as President of the US, ushering in an era of “Reagonomics” to bring down inflation, and unemployment.

Peter Sutcliffe, a truck driver later convicted as the “Yorkshire Ripper” for murdering 13 women, was arrested in England.

1,186 was the number of armed dacoits the Uttar Pradesh Government claimed to have killed over the course of the year. A result of a deliberate, stepped-up action against the growing dacoit menace, this was the highest kill-count in the state’s history.

1982: INDIA AT 60

HIGH ON DRAMA

REWIND

The 16 drama-filled days of the Ninth Asian Games in Delhi saw 5,000 athletes from 33 countries and marked Asia’s emergence as a sporting powerhouse. In contrast, the first Games in Delhi in 1951 had attracted just 11 countries which had taken part in six sports events. Over 14 days of competition, an incredible 74 Asian and Asian Games records were broken as Asia fast closed in on the best in the world. India finished fifth with a cache of 57 medals, but won the hearts of Asians with the organisation of the event, which established Rajiv Gandhi’s managerial skills. The event also kickstarted the era of colour television in India as the Games were broadcast in colour. This was also the first Asiad to be held under the aegis of the Olympic Council of Asia.

And Then She Left for Good

Maneka Gandhi left her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi’s house for good in March 1982, signifying to the world her final break with the Gandhi family and removing the last obstacle for Rajiv Gandhi to become Indira Gandhi’s successor.

FIRST CUT

The Palace on Wheels luxury train made its maiden journey on February 2. The tickets for the first ride started at Rs 5,600.

IN TRUE SPIRIT

“No man’s life can be encompassed in one telling... What can be done is to try to be faithful in spirit and find one’s way to the heart of the man.” So went the dedication in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi. The film, starring Ben Kingsley as Gandhi, came very close to achieving that. The funeral sequence was filmed on January 31, 1981, 33 years to the day after Gandhi’s real funeral. Over 300,000 extras were used in the scene, the most for any film, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

“I WILL EVEN SWEEP THE FLOOR IF INDIRAJI ASKS ME TO.”
Zail Singh

Sardar Zail Singh Ramgarhia, President of India from 1982-87, was criticised for his subservient attitude to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. But his relations with Rajiv Gandhi were rocky from the start and deteriorated to such an extent that when INDIA TODAY broke its story about their cold war in February 1987, a Union minister hadn’t called on Singh in two years, not even when summoned. But when in March 1987, after what was the longest President-Prime Minister meeting, lasting 130 minutes, the two emerged clasping hands, it was evident that things had somewhat changed. When his term ended, he chose not to seek re-election.

ELSEWHERE...

The Falklands War came to an end with the surrender of the Argentine garrison. Several thousand troops from Argentina had occupied the island the year before, laying claim to it.

Italy won its first football World Cup in 44 years.

The massacre of some 1,500 Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militarymen began in West Beirut's Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps. The massacre triggered peace rallies in Israel with over 4,00,000 demonstr-ating in Tel Aviv.

6.1 lakh the number of immigrant Indians in the Middle East. The UAE accounted for the most, with 3.5 lakh immigrants while Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had 1.5 lakh and 1.1 lakh, respectively.

Index