| | 1 | ''''1988: Key Events''' |
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| | 3 | * Rajiv Gandhi’s Defamation Bill, seeking to reimpose Emergency-type curbs on the press, is withdrawn following nationwide resistance. |
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| | 5 | * The National Front of opposition parties is launched in August; the Janata Dal, led by expelled Congress(I) member V. P. Singh, revives the centrist opposition unity of the Emergency, except for the BJP. |
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| | 7 | * The Bhartiya Kisan Union, led by Mahendra Singh Tikait, the most militant of the rich peasant organisations, organises a major rally at the Boat Club, New Delhi. |
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| | 9 | * The DMK wins the Tamil Nadu state assembly after M. G. Ramachandran’s death (1987) and the split in his AIADMK. IRS-1A, a remote sensing satellite, is launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the USSR. |
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| | 11 | * INSAT 1C, launched by the Ariane facility in Kourou, French Guiana, develops snags. |
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| | 14 | * The journals Cinemaya (A Quarterly on Asian Film) and Deep Focus start. |