ABSTRACT
The bomb throwing incident in the Central Legislative Assembly took place on April 8, 1929. As the bill was laid before the house, the police, on March 20, made raids in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and some other cities and arrested labor leaders. The debate on the Public Safety Bill was to resume on April 2, but the president of the assembly, Vithalbhai Patel, delayed it, saying that if the bill were debated the case in Meerut would be affected by the debate as the same points which would be discussed in the assembly were those of the prosecution in the trial. The government, however, had its ways and the next day the bill was promulgated as an ordinance by the governor general. On that day, the viceroy addressed a joint session of the assembly and the Council of State and said the legislation was absolutely necessary to check the activities of saboteurs.
