20,000 Riot In New Delhi

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32266, 8 April 1970, Page 15

20,000 Riot In New Delhi

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW DELHI, April 7. A mob of 20,000 demonstrators protesting against the Government of Mrs Indira Gandhi attempted to storm Parliament yesterday, but were beaten back on the steps of the building by policemen armed with tear-gas and truncheons.

The clash occurred after the demonstrators, many with bows and arrows, marched through the streets of the capital demanding unemployment relief and the resignation of the Government.

In Parliament, political opponents of Mrs Gandhi failed to obtain enough support for a censure motion. Two Socialist members of Parliament leading the demonstators were seriously hurt, two other parliamentarians suffered lesser injuries, and three policemen hit by arrows were taken to hospital. At least 80 persons were arrested in the melee.

Many of the demonstrators waved red flags as they marched into a square near the Parliament where the police had set up barricades. The violence began when tribesmen, students and a large number of women tried to crash the police lines. The police fired volley after volley of tear-gas and used their truncheons to break up the mob.

Socialist Party members, waving blood-stained shirts they claimed were from parliamentarians injured by police brutality, proposed that Parliament censure the Government over the Incident. But after a stormy debate and cries of “Shame, shame” when Mrs Gandhi entered the Chamber, the motion was defeated by 152 votes to 113. Several Communist Party and Independent members abstained. Before the vote, Mrs Gandhi had promised an investigation of the violence and an official apology in an effort to stave off the censure, but the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Ram Subhag Singh) forced the motion to a ballot