BIG DADDY

PICTURE SPEAK

BAND AID: Indian soldiers arrive in Male to bail out the beleaguered Abdul Gayoom

India too played superpower games in its backyard when it quashed the Maldives coup of 1988. Maldivian President Abdul Gayoom, anticipating a third and the most serious coup against his regime (the earlier ones were in 1980 and 1983), appealed to the US, the UK and India for help. On November 3, Rajiv Gandhi responded by sending 1,200 soldiers to help put down the armed Tamil mercenaries who were on the brink of a takeover. More than anything else, it reinforced India’s influence in the Indian Ocean.

GUN CONTROL
Julio Ribeiro

Julio “Supercop” Ribeiro handed over charge of Punjab Police to K.P.S. Gill to carry on the fight against militancy in the state. Ribeiro came to Punjab in 1986 as an advisor to the Governor on the militancy issue. His reputation as Bombay police commissioner followed him. Rather than bow down to terrorism, Ribeiro promised the terrorists a “bullet for bullet”. The result? Between May 1987 and April 1988, 364 terrorists were killed. The supercop was, however, careful—“You have to win over the Sikhs,” he said.

FIRST CUT

Viswanathan Anand became India’s first chess grandmaster at 18. He was the youngest Indian to win the International Master Title at 15 in 1984. He was also the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship in 1987, which was when he was awarded the Padma Shri and the Soviet Land Nehru Award.

“YOU ARE YOUNG. YOU CAN SHAPE THE NEW WORLD.”

So said an ailing, 84-year-old Deng Xiaoping when he met Rajiv Gandhi in Beijing for 90 minutes. Rajiv became the first prime minister of India, since his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru in 1954, to scale the Great Wall of China in December.The visit, however, failed to achieve any breakthrough in the turbulent Sino-Indian ties.

REPEAT STRIKE

Operation Black Thunder, a counter-terrorist operation carried out by the National Security Guards, was aimed at drawing out terrorists holed up in the Golden Temple, Amritsar. During the operation that lasted six days, 151 terrorists surrendered.

Telly-revolution

Streets wore a deserted look. Life came to a standstill on Sunday mornings. This, from the day Ramayan and Mahabharat hit the otherwise staid television screens of the great Indian middle class. Beginning in 1987 and ending in 1988, with 78 episodes and an estimated 80 million viewers, it had events advertised for Sundays adding the caveat: ‘To be held after Ramayan’. Mahabharat, started in 1988 and ending in 1989, also gripped the popular imagination, and was seen in 90 per cent of all Indian television homes.

ELSEWHERE...

Moscow agreed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, promising to pull out all 1,15,000 men by mid-February 1989.

On October 19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 22 per cent, triggering similar drops across the world.

Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US ambassador Arnold Raphel died in a plane crash near Bhawalpur in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister, the first woman ever to head a government in an Islamic state.

3,074 was the death toll due to militancy in Punjab in the year, compared to 910 a year before, in 1987.

91 lakh tonne was the sugar India produced, making it the largest producer in the world.

1989: INDIA AT 60

FREEDOM AT A COST

PICTURE SPEAK

CAVING IN: A relieved Mufti hugs his daughters Rubaiya and Mehbooba

REWIND

The end of the six-day drama of the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed—daughter of Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed—was a case of good news, and then the bad news. While the 23-year-old doctor was brought back safely, it was only after the exchange of five members of JKLF who were released to secessionist slogans (“if you wish to do God’s work, go pick up a Kalashnikov”). As the government blinked first, the separatist movement grew in Kashmir, leading to more kidnappings and killings.

FIRST CUT

Kottayam in Kerala became the first town in the country to achieve complete literacy. All 70,000 citizens in this small southern town can read and write.

Rajiv Gandhi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Pakistan, but lost soon after, the Congress winning only 197 seats in Lok Sabha, 200 down from 1984.

SEEDS OF DISCORD

The first stone for building the Ram Mandir was laid at the disputed Babri Masjid site on November 9. In Ayodhya, over two lakh Hindus pledged their lives for the cause of Ram Janmabhoomi, while in Delhi an equal number of Muslims swore to protect the structure. The Government watched, sitting on a keg of communal gunpowder.

DID YOU KNOW

The National Front victory saw oversized egos clashing after Devi Lal said he wanted the top spot. If not that, he asked for the second-best post, that of deputy prime minister. His wish was fulfilled.

“I WANT TO PLAY THE ROLE OF BALRAM IN MAHABHARAT.”
VISHWANATH PRATAP SINGH after taking over as Prime Minister

V.P. Singh inherited one of the most difficult jobs in the world, running the country with a minority government hanging between the Left and the Right. His reign saw the explosion of the Mandal bomb, the motive behind which was creating a caste matrix that could make his seat unassailable for the next 20 years. He fell from power in 11 months, after bringing to a grinding halt L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra. The subsequent tom-tomming of the secular card couldn’t save Mr Clean.

MIRA MASALA

Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay won the prestigious Golden Camera award at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar in the best Foreign Language category. It was the first film to be nominated since Mother India in 1957. The film, co-written by her friend Sooni Taraporevala, starred 24 handpicked real street children who were trained at a special workshop before appearing in the film.

Comeback Man

M. Karunanidhi returned to power 13 years after an ignominous exit. In one of the most dramatic victories in India’s electoral history, his party DMK won 147 of the 198 seats it contested, making him the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the third time.

RANASINGHE PREMADASA on the IPKF’s involvement in Sri Lanka
“The Indians came on our invitation and helped us. Now they must go and help us by going.”

ELSEWHERE...

Hundreds of civilians were shot dead by the Chinese Army in the Tiananmen Square massacre. The army’s attempt to crush a democratic uprising in Peking was telecast to the whole world (right).

The Berlin Wall fell on November 9 as East Germans swarmed across checkpoints to meet their West German compatriots, after weeks of protests against East German authorities.

Emperor Hirohito of Japan died at the age of 87 after the longest reign in the history of Japan.

$470 million is the amount Union Carbide agreed to pay India for damages in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in an out-of-court settlement in May. While the personal damage was taken care of, the environmental impact was ignored.

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