Uproar, riots as House debates ex-P.M.’s fate
NZPA-Reuter New Delhi Pandemonium broke out in India’s Lower House of Parliament yesterday as legislators debated whether the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, should be punished for breach of Parliamentary privilege. In the streets, the police used tear-gas to disperse supporters of Mrs Gandhi demonstrating near the New i Delhi residence of Prime; Minister (Mr Morarji Desai) i and arrested more than 500 members of her wing of the Congress Party. Six policemen were in* | jured by stones hurled by; the demonstrators in New' Delhi and the police arrested, more than 100 members of Mrs Gandhi’s party in Calcutta protesting against what they called the “fascist methods” of the Janata Government.
In the Lower House (Lc.k Sabha), Opposition and Janata members hurled abuse at each other as the fourhour debate bogged down in procedural wrangles. Mr Desai and the Opposition leader, C. M. Stephen, agreed to extend the debate before a vote is taken, under which Mrs Gandhi can be imprisoned, expelled from Parliament, or suspended for the remaining two weeks of the present session. Mrs Gandhi, who sat unperturbed during the noisy and at times chaotic debate, had earlier been found guilty by a House Privilege Committee of harassing officials collecting information on her son’s “People’s car” manufacturing project, which never came to fruition. Most of the Opposition was solidly behind Mrs Gandhi, with one legislator,
I .Eduardo Faldero, accusing I the Janata Party of “behavi i ing like a lynch mob out tor -'Mrs Gandhi’s blood.” Another Opposition mem- - ber from southern India declared: “People >f the ■.south are very much ■ aroused on this issue. This is a matter which could di-1 ■ vide the country in the ‘ north and south.” ‘ Mrs Gandhi, who was returned to Parliament last I month after winning a byelection in southern India. /has retained much of her support in the south but her | party failed in two recent ! I by-elections in northern -i India.
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Press, 20 December 1978, Page 8
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328Uproar, riots as House debates ex-P.M.’s fate Press, 20 December 1978, Page 8
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