November 21, 1978, Forty Years Ago: Storm Over Aligarh

November 21, 1978, Forty Years Ago: Storm Over Aligarh

Storm Over Aligarh

A section of the opposition walked out of the Lok Sabha when the prime minister expressed his inability to answer the question whether the RSS was responsible for the communal riots in Aligarh. The House was discussing a call attention motion on communal riots in the country, particularly in Aligarh. M V Chandrashekhar Murthy (Congress-I), one of the five members who had tabled the motion, alleged that communal riots were increasing after the lifting of the Emergency and the coming of the Janata Party to power. He blamed the RSS for the Aligarh riots and urged the government to have it banned in Aligarh — at least on a trial basis. He asked Dhanik Lal Mandal, minister of state for home, who had replied to the call-attention motion, whether the RSS was responsible for the riots. Desai, who intervened to reply to the questions, said it was wrong to blame the Janata government for the riots. These incidents were “wrong” — a matter of shame — for all. They must be stopped, the minister said.

Nirankari Issue

Though the Akali high command has reached an understanding with the Central leaders on the Nirankari issue, the situation in the Akali Dal is not smooth for the leadership. Four members of the Akali Dal Working Committee who had sent their letters of resignation, are stated to be dissatisfied with the high command’s agreement with the Centre and are adamant in sticking to their decision of resigning from the Cabinet.

Kannada For Indira

Indira Gandhi took the oath of allegiance to the Constitution in Kannada amid cheers from Congress (I) benches and boos from members of the ruling Janata Party. As Mrs Gandhi entered the Lok Sabha a minute before it assembled, the Janata members shouted ‘‘shame, shame, the evil has come”. Congress (I) members shouted “Mrs Gandhi ki jai”.