Reporters from two leading Bangalore newspapers came for an interview and asked about the war, the Non-Aligned Movement and the treatment of opponents, especially Baha'is and terrorists. One of them wrote a false report claiming that Muslim students had collected a petition bearing ten thousand signatures protesting the entry of the Iranian delegation into India.
Reporters from two leading Bangalore newspapers came for an interview and asked about the war, the Non-Aligned Movement and the treatment of opponents, especially Baha'is and terrorists. One of them published a false report claiming that Muslim students had gathered a petition with ten thousand signatures protesting the entry of the Iranian delegation into India, which was objected to by our ambassador in India.
We visited an orphanage for Muslim children that cared for around three hundred orphans, both girls and boys. The children sang revolutionary songs such as ‘We are armed with Allahu Akbar’ and so on, and we gave fifty thousand dollars to the institution, and Mr Hedayat-zadeh, the Deputy Minister of Commerce, gave another fifty thousand dollars. Its budget is covered by a charitable organisation.
We went to the airport and boarded the plane for Delhi. On the runway, it became apparent that one of the engines was not providing sufficient power, and the Indian engineers were unable to fix it. We were delayed at the airport for two or three hours. The heads of the two state assemblies and the students also stayed, and we had a long discussion together. It was arranged for a repair crew or an Indian aircraft to come from Delhi.
We were forced to visit a Hindu temple to fill the time. We watched their special ceremonies before the god of wealth, the temple's patron, and also the worship of the goddess.
We prayed in congregation at the Islamic Students' Association and then I spoke to the students for a while. We had lunch at half past three at the hotel and rested; we were guests of the Assembly.
We were forced to cancel the luncheon with the Vice-President of India and our evening reception for Indian dignitaries, which had been arranged in advance, and waited for our travel arrangements to be finalised. At the airport, the students complained about the Indians' bureaucratic rigidity, and two mining employees were upset that the Indians were demanding tax on the sixty per cent of their salaries paid by Iran. The Speaker of the Parliament said that no such law existed and that the matter would be looked into. Each person receives one thousand five hundred dollars a month, which is paid to them in India.
We arrived in Delhi at ten o'clock at night on a private Indian plane that had been sent for us. Our plane had been left in Bangalore for repairs. It turned out that today, about thirty-five Iranian opponents had come to protest in front of the residence with placards, but they were dispersed at the insistence of the Islamic students.
At the airport, a group of students had come to greet us. They were disrupting the police escort and the delegation's convoy on motorbikes, and this situation occurred for almost the entire duration of the convoy's journey. I am reluctant to suppress the expressions of feeling of revolutionary youth, and the Indian police also want order. After hearing the news from Iran, I went to sleep.
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