December 30, 1976, Forty Years Ago: Target Inefficiency

E.M.S Namboodiripad said that there was no question “political united front” of the CPM and CPI unless the CPI severs all connections with the Congress. However, Namboodiripad told the Indian Express correspondent that the CPM had no objection to united action on specific fronts with the CPI. The CPM was willing to cooperate in defending the rights of the working class and the peasantry and for restoration of democracy leading to fresh elections.

Population Problem

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, said that the lessons of history disproved the belief of some that the strength of a country was directly proportional to its members. On the second day of her visit to Lakshwadeep, the PM told a public meeting on a beach that if population size was proportional to the strength of a country, European nations would not have been able to enslave African and Asian countries as they did. Mrs Gandhi was stressing the importance of family planning at the meeting.

Orissa Government

A new Congress government was sworn in Orissa after a 12-day spell of President’s rule occasioned by the resignation of Nandani Satpathy. Binayak Acharya was sworn in as the state’s seventh Congress chief minister. Besides the CM, the three-tier ministry consists of eight cabinet ministers, four ministers of state and a deputy minister. Acharya said that there would be an expansion of the ministry soon.