Opinion June 6, Forty Years Ago: Suez canal reopens

The Suez Canal reopened for traffic eight years after it was shut following the Arab-Israeli war.

The Suez Canal reopened for traffic eight years after it was shut following the Arab-Israeli war. Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat said the waterway was “completely cleared and purged of Israeli aggression”. The canal was closed when Israel took the whole of the Sinai desert up to the east bank of the 103-mile waterway during the 1967 Six-Day War.

JP rally in Calcutta
The big story of the day was the “people’s march” of Jayaprakash Narayan in Calcutta. An estimated three lakh people participated in the rally jointly organised by the Navanirman Samiti and the Left Front. The report said the march was “spontaneous, massive and yet disciplined — something rare for Calcutta”. “From a vantage point at the Esplanade-Dharamtalla crossing, as far as the eye would go it looked like a vast, solid phalange of humanity,” the report read. Addressing the meeting, JP said Bengal was ripe for a “jan andolan”. Congress (O) leader P.C. Sen and CPM leader Jyoti Basu attended the rally.

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Dacca-Peking ties
Four years after its formation, Bangladesh established high-level diplomatic contacts with China. Diplomatic sources said the Bangladesh ambassador to Burma, K.M. Kaiser, had meetings with China’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Han Nien-lung in Peking. However, it is believed Peking would normalise relations with Dacca only after Bangladesh settled it disputes with Pakistan.

Indira campaign ends
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi concluded her election campaign in Gujarat. At her last rallies, she attacked the Janata Front and the KLMP and requested people to vote for the Congress. She called KLMP leader Chimanbhai Patel a “selfish and opportunist power seeker”, who misled the people by wearing new garbs.