The Indian Express, December 24, 1978.A mammoth kisan rally, claimed by the organisers to be the biggest-ever, held in the Capital, adopted a 20-point charter of demands and greeted with great fervour a call by Charan Singh to usher in a de-industrialisation revolution. Today is Singh’s 77th birthday. His main argument was that the policy being followed in the country today was a continuation of the British policy, which had created two clashing universes in the country — towns and villages — and the post-Independence governance had widened the gap. The root of the farmers’ woes was to be found in the emphasis given to industrialisation on the one hand and the gross negligence practised when it came to providing better prices for farm produce and cheap inputs for agriculture. At the same time the civil servants and politicians were all urban-oriented and had no inkling of the needs of the villagers.
Congress connection
The two young men who skyjacked the Delhi-bound Indian Airlines Boeing 737 on Wednesday are understood to have admitted having received money from Congress (I) leaders. Both the skyjackers, Devendra Nath Pandey and Bhola Nath Pandey, were interrogated on the third day today since their arrest on Thursday. They are understood to have named two office-bearers of the State Congress (I) Committee who, they said, had given them Rs 400 and Rs 200, respectively. They had purchased air tickets from Lucknow to Delhi for Rs 350 out of this amount.
End violence
The eight-hour debate on the skyjacking of the Indian Airlines Boeing and the climate of violence in the country ended in the Lok Sabha with strong and unequivocal condemnation by Prime Minister Morarji Desai, and the leader of the Opposition, C M Stephen, of all acts of violence. That violence and democracy could not go together was the theme of the debate. Opinion in the House was unanimous that the politics of violence must be put to an end.
