This is the front page of The Indian Express published on May 11, 1980. (Express Archive)

The army has been asked to remain in readiness to assist the civil administration in any eventuality in Manipur in view of the All-Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU) decision to launch an indefinite agitation on May 12 for deportation of “foreign nationals”. Reinforcements from the army, the Border Security Force, the Assam Rifles and the Central Reserve Police Force have been rushed to Manipur to assist the state police in the maintenance of law and order. The governor of North-Eastern states, L P Singh, today flew to Imphal to review the situation and supervise the arrangements to meet any eventuality.

No Changing 1951

The Assam government and the All-Assam Students’ Union (AASU) appeared to be on a collision course. While the state administration was busy giving finishing touches to a contingency plan to tackle the oil blockade, the AASU late last night decided to further intensify the eight-month-old agitation for detection of foreign nationals, deletion of their names from the electoral rolls and their eventual deportation. The executive committee of the AASU, which met in Gauhati last night under the chairmanship of its president, Prafulla Kumar Mohanta, resolved that there could be no compromise on the 1951 cut-off year for the detection of foreign nationals.

Iran Elections

The powerful Islamic Republican Party, said to be pressing for spy trials of the 53 American hostages, led all other political groups in early returns in the run-off elections for the Iranian Parliament, which may next month decide the hostages’ fate. Teheran Radio said 52 candidates were elected in the early results. Party lists indicate that 25 of them are members of the IRP, which with its other fundamentalist Muslim allies is expected to control the new Parliament. Only three of the candidates elected were among those supported exclusively by Iran’s moderate president, Bani-Sadr.