The Indian Express, April 9, 1979.Congress president Swaran Singh reiterated in Lucknow the party’s commitment to inner democracy and collective leadership and said that unity talks between the two Congresses were called off because these basic principles were not acceptable to Mrs Indira Gandhi. Inaugurating the 42nd political conference of the Uttar Pradesh Congress, he warned that any organisation which depended on an individual was bound to meet the same fate as the Congress in the last general election. Singh maintained that he did not compromise on principles to merge with the Congress (I). He accused Mrs Gandhi of suddenly changing her stand on unity, resulting in the failure of the talks.
Protests For Bhutto
Military courts in Pakistan have ordered whipping, jail terms or fines for 50 supporters of executed former prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for organising anti-government demonstrations, the government announced in Islamabad. The defendants had been detained on Wednesday and Friday as protests erupted in a number of cities in Pakistan following the execution of Bhutto. One of the reasons the protests came to an end is that Bhutto’s PPP has been left without a leader. The PPP supporters had expected Mumtaz Bhutto, a relation of Bhutto and a former Cabinet colleague, and Pirzada to lead them. Now it appears that both of them had decided to adopt low profile, at least for now.
Body Missing
The body of the former prime minister of Iran, Amir Abass Hoveida, who was executed on April 7, has disappeared from the mortuary in Tehran. The BBC Teheran correspondent said the body was in the mortuary earlier in the day. Hoveida’s family had asked for it to be embalmed. Hours later, mortuary officials said it had been handed over but could not say to whom. There were demonstrations at the city cemetery against any attempt to bury the body there.
