Opinion August 29, 1982, Forty Years Ago: Parties Clash

There was a pandemonium at New Delhi railway station when a fight erupted between Congress (I) workers and Maneka Gandhi’s supporters who had gone to receive the latest addition to the Sanjay Gandhi Vichar Manch, Kalpanath Sonkar, till now a Congress (I) MP, from Uttar Pradesh. As frightened passengers fled in all directions, youths clad in kurta-pyjamas robbed a railway soft drinks stall of bottles and hurled them at each other. No one was injured. Afterwards, both parties registered complaints with the police who have filed two cases, of rioting agsint the Congress (I) workers and one of attempted murder and rioting against J N Mishra of the Manch.

Uniform Civil Code

“It is high time that we brought reforms in the Muslim personal law, first of all to do away with polygamy, so that we can stop the misuse an misapplication of the personal law not only by Muslim men but also men of other religions to marry a second wife”, says Noorjehan Razack, the AIADMK MP in the Rajya Sabha. Razack, who is also a practising advocate, had made a statement in the Rajya Sabha on August 13 requesting the central government to stop the exploitation of Muslim women, especially in marriage and divorce by enacting a common civil code applicable to all communities including Christians, Muslim, Parsis and Sikhs.

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India And Japan

India and Japan are coming round to the view that greater content should be added to their bilateral relations. This was evident after the talks between Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshio Sakurauchi and Minister for External Affairs Narsimha Rao in New Delhi. The leaders stressed the fact that relations between the two important Asian countries had to be improved.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on August 29, 2022, under the same title.