Forty Years Ago: August 19, 1979

Workers’ rally

On the opening of Parliament, August 20, the Delhi textile workers will hold a rally at the Boat Club “to show to the members of Parliament that they are alive and kicking and are willing to fight for their demands in spite of the hardships they have been suffering because of their 55-day-old strike.” Representatives of the workers of the five mills in Delhi will present demands to members of Parliament after the rally.

Centre rules Sikkim

Sikkim has been brought under President’s rule for the first time since it became the 22nd state of India in 1975. According to a presidential proclamation, President’s rule has been imposed under Article 356 of the Constitution. The Union cabinet considered the state governor B B Lal’s report and recommended that President’s rule should be imposed.

Pak n-bomb

Pakistan is all set to explode what is called the “Islamic bomb” most probably in October this year in the wastes of the Balochistan desert, according to the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper’s special correspondent in Islamabad has said that there is a growing view among diplomats in the Pakistan capital that the country’s nuclear capability is the direct result of close co-operation over many years with China. Reports of nuclear know-how being surreptitiously acquired in Europe, according to the correspondent.