This is an archive article published on April 17, 2021

Opinion April 17, 1981, Forty Years Ago: The Afghan Plan

Speaking at the Central Hall of Parliament, she said her government was ready to join with others, including Afghanistan’s neighbours and permanent members of the Security Council, on how these plans would be achieved.

margaret thatcher, Afghan, Forty Years Ago, Judges Transfer Issue, Inflation Continues, indian express

She did not elaborate on the proposals.

April 17, 2021 03:20 AM IST First published on: Apr 17, 2021 at 03:20 AM IST

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has revealed that her country has put forward some proposals for a political solution on the Afghan issue. Speaking at the Central Hall of Parliament, she said her government was ready to join with others, including Afghanistan’s neighbours and permanent members of the Security Council, on how these plans would be achieved. She did not elaborate on the proposals. She referred to the concerns and uncertainties “which this invasion of Afghanistan had created” in the region and the world and said a settlement which would leave the country free from foreign troops was needed to restore confidence.

Judges Transfer Issue

The law minister P Shiv Shankar has argued that the judiciary would argue more independently if judges were appointed to high courts outside the setting in which they have a base. It was with this in mind, he had requested the chief justices of high courts to obtain the consent of additional judges for permanent appointment in other high courts. Replying to call-in-attention motion, Shiv Shankar clarified that generally those judges were sought to be moved to other high courts against whom complaints had been received about prejudices.

Inflation Continues

There is no let-up in inflation despite an all-round improvement in inflation claimed by the government. In a mid-year appraisal last year, Finance Minister R Venkataraman had hoped that improvement in infrastructure and higher industrial production, especially in core sectors, along with increased farm productivity, would contain the inflation rate. The rate of inflation showed some discipline in the last quarter of 1980 but in the new year, the earlier trend of galloping rates has resumed. On March 21, it was 15.9 per cent as against 13 per cent on January 3. The situation continues to persist despite a record agricultural output last year.