October 31, 1977, Forty Years Ago

Indian Express Front Page on October 31, 1977

Indira on Emergency
Indira Gandhi said in Madras that she was not sorry for the Emergency she clamped on the country when she was prime minister. Addressing a news conference, she said the “sum total of the Emergency was one of good to the country”. She admitted there had been excesses, but argued that the achievements made during that period could not be obscured. The Emergency was good as a “shock, treatment and self-discipline”. She tried to argue that the Emergency should not be a permanent feature. The former PM believed that her colleagues did not let her down and took the blame for all the mistakes. When her attention was drawn to the sufferings the Press had to undergo, Mrs Gandhi said she had no knowledge about how to deal with the Press. She did not, however, want to justify the difficulties caused to the newspapers.

Two shot in protests
Two persons died in Chennai when police fired at a 5,000-strong crowd which had gathered to stage a black-flag demonstration against Indira Gandhi in defiance of the ban on demonstrations. Three rounds were fired near the Halda factory when a mob attacked the police with “deadly” weapons, soda-water bottles, stones and brickbats disregarding warnings by police. The protest demonstration was organised by the DMK which was sore at the dismissal of its government early last year by the central government, then headed by Mrs Gandhi.

Submarine in Egypt
Britain’s nuclear submarine “Dreadnought” has been held up at the to the Suez Canal by Egyptian authorities, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday, Reuters reported from London. A defence ministry spokesperson said he understood that the Egyptians were worried about the implications of allowing a nuclear-powered submarine through the canal. “Dreadnought” would be the first nuclear-powered submarine to use the canal.