Indian parliament speaker killed in 'copter crash

G.M.C. Balayogi, the speaker of the Indian Parliament’s lower house, was killed today in a helicopter crash in southern India where he had attended a peace rally. He was 50.

The pilot and Balayogi’s personal assistant, D. Raju, were also killed in the crash in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the state chief minister’s office said.

It said the helicopter belonging to a private aviation company was flying low through fog when it hit a tree soon after taking off from the town of Bhimavaram for the state capital, Hyderabad.

Balayogi’s death appeared unrelated to the clashes between Hindu nationalists and Muslims in western India that have killed more than 400 people since Wednesday.

Balayogi had attended a Global Peace Initiative rally on Saturday in Bhimavaram, about 220 miles east of Hyderabad, which was attended by Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Global Peace Initiative is a Washington D.C.-based interfaith relief group founded by an Indian Christian.

Huckabee, who travelled in another helicopter to Hyderabad, was safe.

Huckabee, a former pastor, is in India at the invitation of Global Peace to see their programmes for orphans and homeless women.

Balayogi, a trained lawyer and magistrate, was elected speaker of the Lok Sabha, the decision-making lower house of Parliament, for a second term in 1999. He belonged to the secular Telugu Desam party, the second- largest member of the 21-party governing coalition led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Balayogi was first elected to the Parliament from Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh in 1991.

He was the first ‘‘dalit’’ - the lowest rung of India’s centuries old caste hierarchy - to be elected speaker. His victory was hailed by social activists for the downtrodden.