Word: gandhis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...month after she ordered the bloody assault in Punjab against Sikh fanatics at the Golden Temple of Amritsar, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had once again pounded her fist in the name of buttressing India's system of centralized government. Mercifully, there seemed to be little immediate likelihood in Srinagar that the action would lead to the type of bloody confrontation that claimed more than 600 lives in Amritsar. The troops had been sent to Jammu and Kashmir to keep the peace as the state government was being rocked by New Delhi's ouster of the freely elected Chief...
Abdullah, 46, is the leader of the Muslim-oriented National Conference Party. He became a leading target for Mrs. Gandhi's enmity in June 1983, when he won 46 of 76 state assembly seats in fiercely contested local elections; the Congress (I) Party won only 26. During the campaign Abdullah forged an alliance with Mirwaiz
Maulvi Farooq, an Islamic zealot whose followers are fervent admirers of Pakistan. Mrs. Gandhi has long feared secessionist tendencies in the strategic state, where Muslims outnumber Hindus by 3.9 million to 1.8 million. The Prime Minister's anger increased when Abdullah joined with politicians from other states whose intent was to form an anti-Gandhi alliance for the national elections that she must call by January...
Last January Mrs. Gandhi's Congress (I) Party gave its rough response. Party militants led street riots against the Chief Minister, and in the ensuing violence nine people were killed and hundreds injured. In March Mrs. Gandhi asked the state governor to impose a form of direct rule that would bypass Abdullah and his government. When the governor refused, he was replaced by a Gandhi loyalist. Congress (I) Party politicians then secretly promised state government cabinet posts to twelve National Conference Party assemblymen, led by Abdullah's brother-in-law, in exchange for their agreement to abandon...
Abdullah denied that he advocated secession from India, and vowed to fight back. He declared, "We shall begin a massive civil disobedience program at all levels of life here, but it will remain non violent." Mrs. Gandhi's latest show of strength is unlikely to damage seriously her standing among the 83% Hindu ma jority of India's 746 million population...