Forty Years Ago, June 22, 1981: Bani Sadr impeached

Iran’s Parliament overwhelmingly voted fugitive president Abolhassan Bani Sadr incompetent to stay in office. Tehran’s prosecutor promptly called public summons and issued an order of arrest for the country’s first elected president after 25 centuries of monarchy. “All the heroic people of Iran are asked to arrest him wherever they see and hand him over to the security committee or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards,” said Prosecutor Ali Quaddosi in the state-run Tehran radio. The Majlis vote was a victory for Iran’s clergy-led fundamentalists of the Islamic Republican party which led the year-long campaign to oust the France-educated economist who was the front man for the Leftists and nationalists of the Islamic revolution.

Two Congresses

The truncated executive committee of the MPCC undaunted by the large-scale exodus to the Congress (I) resolved to make determined efforts to rebuild the party on the basis of clarity of political philosophy and programmes. The meeting, which was later converted into a general body meeting at the instance of party workers, resolved to maintain the separate status of the Congress in view of the treatment given to Y B Chavan and others by the Congress (I) parliamentary board.

Progress on Apple

Indian space officials are fully prepared to put Apple, which has been in orbit for the past three days, into a geosynchronous orbit. The spaceship which completed its third orbit on June 21 has properly oriented for firing the critical apogee boot.

Socialists dominate

French voters gave President Francois Mitterrand the parliamentary majority he was seeking in the second round of the legislative elections. The Socialists are now in complete control of the national assembly.