Opinion September 1, Forty Years Ago: Vinoba Drops Pen

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said its commandos have executed a number of hostages it had taken after a raid on an Israeli settlement after Tel Aviv refused to accept its demands.

Sarvodaya leader Acharya Vinoba Bhave decided to stop writing. He took the decision on Janmashtami night (August 29) when he just scribbled “jay jagat” and “Ram Hari” on a piece of paper and stopped writing. A pioneer of the bhoodan movement, Vinoba Bhave was also a multilingual scholar who wrote extensively on a range of subjects, especially ethics and philosophy.

Israel Bloodbath
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said its commandos have executed a number of hostages it had taken after a raid on an Israeli settlement after Tel Aviv refused to accept its demands. A PFLP communique said it had demanded the release of nine persons including the Greek Catholic archbishop, Hilarion Capucci, serving a 12-year sentence for allegedly helping Palestinian guerillas, and Japanese Red Army leader Kozo Okamoto, lodged in an Israeli jail. PFLP guerillas held the hostages for 11 hours before Israeli commandos stormed in. The PFLP attack was deemed to be an attempt to derail US-mediated talks between Israel and Egypt to reach an accord on Sinai.

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Workers’ Councils
The Centre proposed to make workers’ participation in management statutory, a report said. The proposal envisaged councils for each department or shop, in every undertaking employing more than 500 workers. The functions of the council were to include safety measures, general discipline, working conditions in the concerned department, welfare and health measures, and steps for increasing quality and productivity.

SC, ST Welfare
The Centre asked all state governments to provide a fresh and vigorous impetus to the welfare programmes for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the country by setting apart for them a percentage of all development funds.