Decmber 16, 1977, Forty Years Ago: Carter on India

Express front page forty years ago 

Carter on India

US President Jimmy Carter indicated that during his visit to India, he will try to strengthen Indo-American ties and change her past pro-Soviet orientation. Carter said that “India is the world’s largest democracy. In the past, under Mrs Gandhi, their primary orientation was towards friendship with the Soviet Union. I would like very much for the people of India and for the Prime Minister, Mr Desai to know how much we value restoration of the strong ties of friendship, trade and commerce.”

Congress convulsions

Aziz Sait, Karnataka minister, was expelled from the Congress for six years for “anti-party activity” pushing the party closer to a split. Sait had earlier been suspended from the Congress by the PCC chief. Brahmananda Reddi, Congress president, sent a telegram to chief minister Devraj Urs, asking him to drop Sait from his ministry if newspaper reports of what he said at his press conference at Bangalore were true.

Jnanpith Award

Bengali novelist Ashapurna Devi won the 12th Jnanpith literary award. Her novel, Prathama Pratishruti, was adjudged the best creative Indian literary work of the period 1960-69. Devi, who will be 69 in January, is the first woman to win this award. A housewife, Devi, has to her credit no less 110 novels and 20 collections of short stories. The award-winning novel, in the words of the writer, offers the tale of one of those countless unnamed women who, dwelling in their scorned domesticity, have ushered “in the signature of society’s earliest promise”.

Dharmendra held

Matinee idol Dharmendra was arrested and released on bail by the Agripada police in Central Bombay. He was alleged to have assaulted a cine journalist after the film stars’ procession, organised to collect funds for the cyclone-affected people of Andhra Pradesh.