Front page of The Indian Express on January 16, 1979Jayaprakash Narayan’s plea to the prime minister to accommodate Charan Singh appears to have gone home — he has been offered deputy prime ministership. Singh’s associates who confirmed this offer, said that he alone would be the deputy prime minister. The offer to Singh is on the condition that Raj Narain, Charan Singh’s Man Friday, will not return to the government. However, Charan Singh was not agreeable.
PM’s Warning
Prime Minister Morarji Desai said the government would not hesitate to bring banking services under the purview of the Essential Services Act, if bank employees continue agitation. Whatever was necessary to be done would be done at the proper time, he told newsmen. “We will not submit to anybody’s threat. They (bankmen) get more (pay) than others,” he said. In a democracy anybody had a right to agitate but then, the government too had the right to action, he added.
Bankers Talk Tough
The agitating bank employees will not participate in the proposed adjudication proceedings. Referring to Finance Minister H M Patel’s threat to refer the dispute to adjudication, the employees’ leaders said that the adjudication process was lengthy and costly. To substantiate their contention, they pointed out that the last tribunal in the industry, namely the T Desai Tribunal, took about 27 months to give its award.
Ahmedabad Violence
The police fired one round in the air on the Richie Road area in Ahmedabad after midnight when a mob tried to break open a nationalised bank on the road. Earlier, the police used tear gas to disperse unruly mobs that were attacking banks on the two main roads of the city. The Bank of Baroda building and the United Commercial Bank building came under heavy stone-throwing and a pitched battle was on between the police and the mob.
