1984 In India

EVENTS

June

June - Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dispatches troops into Amritsar 's Golden Temple , Sikhdom's holiest shrine. More than 1,000 people are killed in the operation to oust separatist militants using the temple as a headquarters.

October

October 31 - Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by Sikh bodyguards in apparent retaliation for dispatching troops to the Golden Temple. Her son Rajiv Gandhi takes over as prime minister and leader of the Congress-I Party with India in turmoil as some 2,700 Sikhs are killed across India, mostly in Delhi, in pogroms organized by her political party, the Congress (I). Her only surviving son, Rajiv Gandhi, an airline pilot, is sworn in as prime minister, in violation of the tradition of the Home Minister being appointed prime minister in this situation. The leaders of the mobs during the pogroms go on to become elected MPs a few weeks later, including some who are appointed to senior Cabinet posts in the Central Government.

December

December - Deadly gas leaks from a pesticide plant owned by U.S.-based Union Carbide Corp in the central city of Bhopal , killing some 6,500 people and injuring 20,000 in the world's worst industrial disaster.

BIRTHS

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