The World - News from Sept. 26, 1989

Hundreds of thousands of people attended a peaceful rally in New Delhi called by India’s major opposition parties to launch their campaign to unseat the government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The National Front, a loose alliance of opposition parties, also used the rally to celebrate the 75th birthday of Devi Lal, the powerful chief minister of Haryana state and a major opposition leader. About 15,000 police officers were deployed to control the crowd, believed to be the largest ever at a political rally in New Delhi. Political analysts called the rally a direct challenge to Gandhi and his Congress-I Party to call parliamentary elections immediately. The vote must be held by the end of the year.