''''1985: Key Events'''

* The 52nd Amendment bill disqualifies Members of Parliament who defect from one Party to another. 

* The Assam accord, after which the AASU-Asom Gana Parishad leadership takes over the state government. 

* The Punjab accord is signed by Rajiv Gandhi and Harchand Singh Longowal, the most moderate of the Sikh leaders. Longowal is assassinated shortly afterwards. 

* Doordarshan becomes a fully commercial station selling prime time slots to private sponsors and manufacturers of TV soaps. Its first successful series, Kumar Vasudev’s Humlog (1984-5), is modelled on the Mexican concept of the ‘developmental’ soap opera and is sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive and Nestlé. 

* Several privately made serials follow as TV ownership jumps from 2. 7 million in 1984 to 12. 5 million in 1986.


* Indian Cinema season at Pesaro Film Festival, Italy.