March 27, 1982

Turning away from its grass-roots emphasis of the 1970's, the Democratic National Committee voted today to put potentially decisive power to nominate its next Presidential candidate back in the hands of officeholders and party officials. Without a single spoken protest and over only a handful of ''nay'' votes, the committee adopted rules for 1984 providing that 14 percent of the delegates to the nominating convention be chosen on the basis of their office or party status and without commitment to a candidate. The committee also voted to allow a candidate to win all the delegates from a single district. It decided that state parties would no longer have to use proportional representation, in which delegations are divided among candidates according to their share of the popular vote. Instead, the state parties could provide that voters could choose individual delegates directly.

Three of the space shuttle Columbia's communications links to earth failed in the night, but the project's officials said today that backup systems were sufficient for the astronauts to continue the mission to its scheduled conclusion Monday. The failures raised concern for a time that the flight of the Columbia might have to be ended prematurely, because the affected system is the primary one for voice communications and for tracking the spacecraft in orbit and on its re-entry and descent. At a news conference, Eugene F. Kranz, deputy director for flight operations at the Johnson Space Center, said, ''As far as I'm concerned, the mission is going full duration.'' Complex But Flexible He said that except for the Columbia's computers, the spacecraft's communications system ''is as complex a system as we have on board,'' but it ''has a signficant amount of flexibility.''

International A meeting ''at a high political level'' will be held next month between the United States and Nicaragua, Mexico's delegate announced to the United Nations Security Council. United States sources would not confirm the announcement by Porfirio Munoz Ledo, nor would Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, the United States delegate, However, the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua, Miguel d'Escoto, said that the Mexican account matched his understanding. (Page 1, Columns 2-4.) A compromise with the U.S. was impossible on the issue of the American arms sales to Taiwan, Deng Xiaoping, China's leader, told an American businessman, Armand Hammer, at a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Peking. A Chinese magazine this week quoted Mr. Deng as saying that Peking was ''well prepared'' to downgrade diplomatic relations with Washington if it had to. (8:3-6.)

A group of 125 Vietnam veterans, some of them weeping, turned a shovelful of earth each today to start construction of a black granite memorial to honor those who died in the divisive war. ''Let this memorial begin the healing process and forever stand as a symbol'' of national unity, said Jan Scruggs, an infantryman in the war and the founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Speaking before a crowd of about 2,000 at the muddy site between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, Mr. Scruggs, his voice cracking, noted that there had been ''no monuments, no testaments, no memorials,'' to the Americans who died in Vietnam. Robb Recalls 23 Deaths Gov. Charles S. Robb of Virginia, a Marine Corps officer in the war, recalled that 23 men in his company died, ''two of them literally in my arms.'' He said, ''The families of the men who died in my unit have asked me the whys and hows of their deaths.''

Edwin Meese 3d, the White House counselor, said today that President Reagan was no longer committed to the budget he submitted for the fiscal year 1983 and was prepared to negotiate basic changes with Republicans and Democrats in Congress. In the most explicitly conciliatory sign on the budget from anyone in the Reagan Administration, Mr. Meese said, ''Some changes are necessary because during the time the budget has been up there, the potential deficit has grown.'' In early February a $91.5 billion deficit was projected. Seeking 'Areas of Agreement' Speaking to a meeting of the National Health Council at the Capital Hilton Hotel in downtown Washington, Mr. Meese added that ''we are looking for areas of agreement'' with Congress and that the Administration was engaged in a process of ''trying to get all the various proposals on the table.''