Opinion May 6, 1980, Forty Years Ago: Tito’s funeral
During Marshal Tito’s illness, the country was being governed by a collective leadership and it goes to the credit of the people and various factions that they created no trouble.
This is the front page of The Indian Express published on May 6, 1980.
As world leaders prepare to visit Belgrade to attend Marshal Tito’s funeral, in western political circles grave concern is being expressed on the future of Yugoslavia which the departed leader had built from virtual ruins and given it a prestigious place among communist and non-communist countries. During Tito’s illness, the country was being governed by a collective leadership and it goes to the credit of the people and various factions that they created no trouble. This indicates that along with China and Spain, modern Yugoslavia will join the company of a handful of countries in the world to transform its system of government from rule by a charismatic individual to rule by institution.
Courting arrest
Thousands of pickets, including women, courted arrest before the offices of the deputy commissioners and sub-divisional and block development officers throughout Assam to press for an early solution to the foreigners’ issue. The All-Assam Students Union (AASU) and the All-Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, spearheading the current agitation, have given the call for voluntarily courting arrests for five days as part of their eight-month-old agitation. In Gauhati alone, over 3,000 volunteers were arrested, the police said. Earlier, the volunteers, carrying black flags, took out processions shouting “either deport the foreigners or arrest us.”
End of siege
Three gunmen were killed, one arrested and a fifth was hospitalised with wounds in the dramatic end to the six-day siege at the Iranian embassy, the police reported. Britain’s crack special air services commando unit stormed the building at 7:30 pm (18:30 GMT) after the gunmen threatened to kill a hostage every half hour if their demands were not met, police announced. Nineteen of the hostages were rescued and two were killed before the building was stormed, the metropolitan police commissioner, David McNee, said.
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