February 22, 1981, Forty Years Ago: Students’ Sit-in

College and school students all over Gauhati sat fasting in their institution compounds the whole day in protest against the arrest of Bharat Narain, one of the general secretaries of the AASU, along with two other executive members on Thursday evening, and his re-arrest under the National Security Act after he had been released on bail by a local court. Narain had been arrested under specific charges earlier too and was on bail for about a month. While the censored local press could not report the arrest in their morning editions, the word spread to all school and college students as they began trickling in. There was a call for protest through the AASU’s representatives and immediately almost all students, including primary class students, heeded it.

Anti-left Protest

Protesting against the language and education policy of the left front government in West Bengal, about 2,140 students courted arrest, the last day of a civil disobedience movement in the state. On the fifth day of the weeklong civil disobedience launched by Shiksha Sankochan Birodhl Swadhikar Raksha Committee against the “anti-people” policy of the left front government thousands or farmers and industrial workers courted arrest.

Generals Baffled

Two army generals failed to explain how the putrid body of Ramal Das lay in one of the lavatories of the Central Ordnance Depot (COD) for 45 days, unnoticed by his colleagues and officers. However, L t Gen A M Sethna, Vice-Chief of the Army Staff, and Lt Gen S S Sandhu, Director of Ordnance Services, said they hoped to get an explanation for the “baffling phenomenon” after the inquiry is over. At a specially convened press briefing, the two generals also said the Army authorities were not satisfied with th e proceedings of the court of inquiry regarding the “mysterious death” of Sepoy Kunjan Lazar three months ago in the same COD.