india 1973

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1947-2008-India-Roundup

The country’s economy took a beating after the 1971 war with Pakistan. With crop failure, a serious fall in food production and declining industrial growth, inflation skyrocketed and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was forced to admit that it was “a very difficult year”. India had to resort to loans from Japan, Britain, Canada and the World Bank even as it strove to increase the volume of bilateral trade with Russia. Diplomatic ties in the neighbourhood did not seem to be heading anywhere, with the prime minister rejecting Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s invitation to visit Pakistan.

UNSETTLING RESISTANCE

The Shanti Bahini guerrillas, members of the Chakma tribe, took up arms after Bangladesh rejected their demands for autonomy over a 5,500-sq mile region bordering India and Burma. They demanded the ouster of over three lakh people settled in their original homeland. There have been many armed clashes between the Shanti Bahini and the Bangladeshi military.

FIRST CUT

The first national championship of women’s cricket was conducted and Bombay emerged winner.
The first all-woman police station in the country was set up at Calicut in October.
MP Govind Das was felicitated on November 21 in the Central Hall of Parliament, on completing 50 years as a parliamentarian, an unprecedented record then.

Indira Gandhi broke with tradition appointing Justice A.N. Ray chief justice of the Supreme Court, superseding three judges senior to him, triggering protests in the judiciary. Jayaprakash Narayan wrote to her asking whether these out-of-turn promotions were intended to make the Supreme Court “a creation of the government of the day”. She answered that a mechanical adherence to the “seniority principle had led to an unduly high turnover of chief justices”.

TANK TOP

The largest ship in the Indian merchant fleet, the supertanker Jawaharlal Nehru, with a dead weight tonnage of 88,000, was launched on February 4.

PRIZED PRINCE Karan Singh

Through agreements between the Centre and the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the title and power of the Sadar-i-Riyasat, Karan Singh, had been abolished. In exchange, Singh became a Central Cabinet minister in 1973, in charge of Tourism and Aviation. Because of the special status of J&K and his lineage, Singh became a prominent member of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s cabinet and was soon elevated to the better Ministry of Health and Family Planning. In 1974, he made headlines when he said at the first-ever World Population conference, “Development is the best contraceptive.”

HEADY ROMANCE

Scripted by K.A. Abbas and outfitted by Bhanu Athaiya, Bobby became the epitome of youthful cool at a turbulent time. As Madhu Jain wrote, there was mass hysteria when Bobby was released, with “teenagers sporting shirts with Bobby written on them”. Main shayar to nahin and Hum tum ek kamre mein band hon defined puppy love.

Reaping Reward

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN presented Indira Gandhi with the Ceres medal in recognition of the advances made in the Green Revolution.

ELSEWHERE…

President Nixon announced the suspension of all US offensive action in Vietnam, claiming to “bring peace with honour” above).
Oil prices almost quadrupled following the Yom Kippur war as Arab countries cut down on oil exports to the West. Japan and the US faced severe oil shortages.
Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and the Awami League won a landslide victory in the first elections in Bangladesh.
Artist Pablo Picasso died of a heart attack at his home in France.