GUN CONTROL
Julio Ribeiro
Julio “Super cop” Ribeiro handed over charge of Punjab Police to K.P.S. Gill to carr
y on the fight against militancy in the state. Ribeiro came to Punjab in 1986 as an advisor to the Governor on the militancy issue. His reputation as Bombay police commissioner followed him. Rather than bow down to terrorism, Ribeiro promised the terrorists a “bullet for bullet”. The result? Between May 1987 and April 1988, 364 terrorists were killed. The super cop was, however, careful—“You have to win over the Sikhs,” he said.
FIRST CUT
Viswanathan Anand became India’s first chess grandmaster at 18. He was the youngest Indian to win the International Master Title at 15 in 1984. He was also the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship in 1987, which was when he was awarded the Padma Shri and the Soviet Land Nehru Award.
India too played superpower games in its backyard when it quashed the Maldives coup of 1988. Maldivian President Abdul Gayoom, anticipating a third and the most serious coup against his regime (the earlier ones were in 1980 and 1983), appealed to the US, the UK and Indian for help. On November 3, Rajiv Gandhi responded by sending 1,200 soldiers to help put down the armed Tamil mercenaries who were on the brink of a takeover. More than anything else, it reinforced Indian’s influence in the Indian Ocean.
“YOU ARE YOUNG. YOU CAN SHAPE THE NEW WORLD.”
So said an ailing, 84-yea
r-old Deng Xiaoping when he met Rajiv Gandhi in Beijing for 90 minutes. Rajiv became the first prime minister of India, since his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru in 1954, to scale the Great Wall of China in December. The visit, however, failed to achieve any breakthrough in the turbulent Sino-Indian ties.
Telly-revolution
Streets wore a deserted look. Life came to a standstill on Sunday mornings. This, from the day Ramayan and Mahabharat hit the otherwise staid television screens
of the great Indian middle class. Beginning in 1987 and ending in 1988, with 78 episodes and an estimated 80 million viewers, it had events advertised for Sundays adding the caveat: ‘To be held after Ramayan’. Mahabharat, started in 1988 and ending in 1989, also gripped the popular imagination, and was seen in 90 per cent of all Indian television homes.
REPEAT STRIKE
Operation Black Thunder, a counter-terrorist operation carried out by the National Security Guards, was aimed at drawing out terrorists holed up in the Golden Temple, Amritsar. During the operation that lasted six days, 151 terrorists surrendered.
ELSEWHERE…
Moscow agreed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, promising to pull out all 1, 15,000 men by mid-February 1989.
On October 19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 22 per cent, triggering similar drops across the world.
Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US ambassador Arnold Raphel died in a plane crash near Bhawalpur in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister, the first woman ever to head a government in an Islamic state.
3,074 was the death toll due to militancy in Punjab in the year, compared to 910 a year before, in 1987.
91 lakh tonne was the sugar
India produced, making it the largest producer in the world.
Courtesy By India Today
y on the fight against militancy in the state. Ribeiro came to 
r-old Deng Xiaoping when he met Rajiv Gandhi in 
of the great Indian middle class. Beginning in 1987 and ending in 1988, with 78 episodes and an estimated 80 million viewers, it had events advertised for Sundays adding the caveat: ‘To be held after Ramayan’. Mahabharat, started in 1988 and ending in 1989, also gripped the popular imagination, and was seen in 90 per cent of all Indian television homes.
