NEW DELHI Reuter: The Capitals Beleaguered telephone operators ended strike today when officials claimed an ex-cabinet minister regretted his pre~ dawn gun-toting raid on a telephone exchange to complain about a wayward call.
But former Home Minister P.C. Sethi told the Statesman Newspaper a letter of regret released by government officials was not my draft.
The denial was the latest twist in Delhi’s Telephone Fracas that has capital residents chortling and many telephone users applauding Sethis denunciation of the world’s lousiest telephones.
Officials said that the exchanges were functioning normally with some delays but entrances to telephone buildings were being heavily guarded to prevent unauthorized entries.
But some services including directory information and subscriber assistance were being curtailed while repairs were made to the damaged equipment.
Sethi a prominent politician with a reputation for eccentric behavior burst into the Kidwai Bhavan Exchange early Friday morning with three body-guards and waving a pistol denounced the operators for not completing call to Bombay.
The operators described by Sethi as fat lazy ladies who could be bought for fifty-cents stormed off the switchboards and demanded that Sethi be locked up.
The walkout prompted the government to mobilize the army signals regiment and caused even greater than usual delays in the booking of trunk calls through the ramshackle telephone system in which there is only one chance in four of getting the right number.
On Sunday a communication ministry spokesman released a letter purportedly from Sethi regretting the incident but Sethi later said the letter was a first draft presented by an official and then revised.
Thad cut out the portions about regret Sethi told the Statesman. He said that he gave the revised Graft to the official to be typed and signed a blank letterhead.
“I see that what has been carried as my letter is the original draft without my changes” he told the newspaper.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 29, 1986
