The Indian Express, March 14, 1979.Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, who returned to New Delhi cutting short his tour around the country by a day, held talks for two and a half hours with the Indian delegation led by Prime Minister Morarji Desai and consisting of the deputy prime ministers, the foreign minister and ministers representing various economic ministries. They were wide-ranging, covering bilateral economic co-operation and an exchange of views on international affairs, role of non-aligned and Moscow’s relations with Washington. In this context, Kosygin said an agreement with the US on strategic arms limitation would be finalised “quite soon”. China and its recent action in Vietnam did not figure in the talks.
Janata In Assam
The two Janata high command observers — R K Hegde and Renuka Devi Barkataki — who visited Gauhati to study the situation created by the demand of party dissidents for change of leadership, are believed to have returned to New Delhi carrying the impression that while a large number of party legislators wanted the chief minister, Golap Chandra Borbora, to change his style of functioning, the pro-changers were in a minority. The ministry has the support of 60 Janata legislators, four Plains Tribal Council members and 12 CPM MLAs — 76 in a House 126.
Unwelcome Guest
The Jammu and Kashmir government is not in favour of the Minorities Commission visiting the state. It does not want to treat Kushak Bakula, a member of the commission, as a state guest. Bakula is from Ladakh. He and Sheikh Abdullah are not known to be friends. The Jammu and Kashmir assembly adopted a resolution moved by the CM to set up an 11-man committee on whether the Minorities Commission had jurisdiction over the state.
(There was no edition of the newspaper on March 15 on account of Holi. These are from the issue dated March 14)
