Murder in Bihar

Because of recent political agitation in India's Bihar state, a force of at least 1,000 security men was present last week when the Indian Minister for Railways, Lalit Narayan Mishra, 51, formally opened a new 36-mile-long rail line from Samastipur to Muzaffarpur. Mishra had just finished his remarks and was stepping down from the dais when a time bomb exploded, ripping the dais to pieces and wounding Mishra as well as 24 bystanders (four of whom later died). Mishra himself died the following day during emergency surgery.

The first ranking national politician assassinated in India since Mohandas Gandhi was shot in 1948, Mishra had recently been the target of corruption charges involving the issuance of import licenses during his term as Minister for Foreign Trade (1970-73). The agitation in Bihar has been aimed at unseating a state government that Mishra, himself a Bihari, had strongly backed. The movement has been led by one of India's most respected political leaders, Jayaprakash Narayan, 72, a founder of the Socialist Party and one of the last of Gandhi's immediate disciples. Narayan has been pressing for new elections in Bihar as a way of fighting political corruption there. The New Delhi government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has opposed these efforts--partly because her Congress Party has a majority in Bihar, and partly because her government does not want to permit such an unsettling precedent.

Violent Elements. Ironically, Mishra's death might well strengthen Mrs. Gandhi's position if, as expected, she decides to call new parliamentary elections this year. It reinforces her charge that Narayan's movement has been taken over by violent elements, and that reactionary forces are seeking to overthrow the country's democratic system. More important, it removes from her government a controversial minister whom she had refused to dismiss but who had become a serious political embarrassment.

Mishra, in fact, was easily the most unpopular man in the Indian government--not only because of the corruption charges, but also because he had successfully used strong-arm measures last year in breaking a national rail strike. At week's end, a crowd of government employees in New Delhi initially refused to express formal grief at the news of Mishra's death. Only after the main speaker, Jayaprakash Narayan himself, remonstrated with the group and declared that "no sane person can tolerate" such acts of terrorism did the audience reluctantly support the traditional resolution of condolence.

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