at the dis-

• > shameless ~ctions, the ds, electri- mey gaina' • 0 lon of the 1 comfort. e in the CE 30 PAiSE s victory, )0. And dishear- be over-

lts is a the up- ead of nd the Jsequent ave been other f the :Lllgla ther ims, ress. the 1.an lbi- his ~ir 'n

d o f Rulers In In West Bengal? The New The Casu" NoW More Regional AutonomY? Centre An States Confrontations With The Intettigentsia The CIA And The e wo bullocks not e 1" -rfie Congress has List , xp Olted to draw even a tion Analysis

THEY HAVE DONE IT

Vol. 3: No. 22:: March 3, 1967 THE people have done it. Despite the massive resources at the dis- posal of the Congress Government, despite the most shameless On Other Pages attempt to bribe and seduce the voter on the eve of the elections, the verdict has gone against the old gang. Tubewells, pucca roads, electri- COMMENTS 4 city, gratuitous relief-all the familiar baits-and the bags of money going DELHI LETTER round in villages at midnight, all failed to sway the determination of the AND Now THE DEAD- CENTRE people to kick the potbellied out of their garden of leisure and comfort. FROM A POLITICAL And let us be grateful, for once, for the fact that most people in the CORRESPONDENT 7 countryside do not read newspapers. These predicted a Congress victory, THE DEBACLE IN BIHAR did all they could to spread confusion, defeatism and frustration. And RAMESH UPADHYAYA 8 thank God, the villagers do not read this weekly, which was so dishear- CALCUTTA DIARY .. CHARAN GUPTA 10 tened by left disunity that it did not think the Congress could be over- A BRIEF ANALYSIS whelmed. By POLLSTERS 11 1 That the people have done it despite this disunity over seats is a THE CIA A D THE IN- measure of their maturity. The ground for this was prepared by the up- TELLIGENTSIA-I surges of last year during which the Left CPI became the spearhead of ROBI CHAKRAVORTI 12 THE CIA AND THE IN- the opposition attack. The unity achieved during mass act.ion and the TELLIGENTSIA-II anti-Congress sentiment proved stronger than the effects of the subsequent PHILIP C. ALTBACH .. 14 electoral maladjustment. Of course, the Congress defeat would have been THAILAND-A MILITARY spectacular, as in Kerala Or Madras, had there been no split. On the other SPRINGBOARD hand, this division would perhaps have meant a Congress victory if the SHANKER GHOSH 15 CHINA AND OUR ruling party itself had not been weakened by the emergence of BangIa MA DARINS Congress, which has done far better than the cyni~al expected. Another REVERSION To BARBARISM? key factor in this election was that for the first time most of the Muslims, -II in 24-Parganas at least, decided to have no truck with the Congress. MONITOR 17 They shed their nagging fear of the ruling party and decided to join the THE PRESS RETRIBUTION IN STATES 21 . main stream against the Congress, a process which had started more than MRINAL SEN'S LATEST a year ago in 24-Parganas. Nurul Islam has not. died in vain. In mobi- KIRONMOY RAHA 24 lising the Muslim voter against the Congress, in asking him to hold his NATANATYAM'S SANKAR head high and fear no one, Mr Humayun Kabir, his brother and their By A DRAMA CRITIC .. 25 co-workers and the left parties played a major role, much to the chagrin LETTERS 26 of Mr Atulya Ghosh. (

EDITOR: SAMAR SEN. PRINTED BY Strange, it is not even a week, but, like Hamlet.'s mother, we had HIM AT MODERN INDIA PRESS, almost forgotten Mr Atulya Ghosh, the evil genius of West Bengal who 7 RAJA SUBODH MULLICK SQUARE, thought he had become an all-India colossus. And what about the Chief CALCUTTA-13 AND PUBLISHED BY HIM FOR NATION TRUST FROM 54 GANESH Minister, who moved that infamous resolution against Mr Ajoy Mukherjee CHUNDER AVENUE, CALCUTTA-13. in the WBPCC meeting, a resolution in 'Which not a single charge ·was TELEPHONE: 24-5713. made against the then West Bengal Congress President? Mr Sen, let us Subscription hope, is ruminating on poetic justice after his defeat at Arambagh. (INLAND) Yearly .. Rs. 15.00 All is not sunshine, however. That Calcutta has returned so many Half-Yearly Rs. 7.50 Congress candidates including some of the worst. opportunists, is a shame. Let us not be accused of leaning towards Lin Piao if we say that the FOREIGN MAIL RATES countryside, 24-Parganas particularly, has set an example to a sizable sec- By Air Mail tion in this city and in some towns. Let us, for once, be narodniks, prais- Europe Rs. 104 or 13 dollars Asia Rs. 72 or 9 dollars ing the peasants who trekked to the polling booth to exercise their once-in- America Rs. 152 or 19 dollars five-years sovereignty. The hour of rejoicing, however, should be over. The Congress has By Surface Mail left behind a dirty mess. The two bullocks, not exploited to draw even a All countries: Rs. 32 or 4 dollars NOW

creaking cart or till the field, have lett elation must be tempered with tantra or the Jan Sangh, separately ra ~so huge a dung-heap tha~ it is difficult the realisation that some of the forces or together, cannot be a better alter- ti to breathe. And tlle Congress is thrown up by the election are no less native than the Congress; for all one not dead yet. It is a wounded snake retrograde than what they replace. knows it may be worse. Now that which will try to bite the unwary. In Madras the DMK has secured an the immediate objective of overthrow- The bureaucracy will try to sabotage absolute majority, a distinction de- ing the Congress in as many States as any far-reaching change. A. relent- nied to any other party in the non- possible has been achieved, the left less drive should now begin in Congress States, Kerala not excluded. parties will have to turn their atten- town and village against the bureau- In Orissa the Swatantra party is on tion to the menace of right reaction cracy, against entrenched interests top, and ~ Gujarat and Rajasthan it which has emerged out of the general which thrive on high prices, corrup- has become the second biggest party election. Congress leaders will not tion, starvation and the black market. in the State assembly, though in the allow any scruples to come in the In the difficult days ahead, food will former the Congress has an absolute way of converting their humiliation not be bountiful. It is time to set majority. In the Delhi Territorial at the polls into a tactical victory up all-party committees in villages to Council the Jan Sangh has secured against the left with which alone, watch the hoarders so that there an absolute majority, and in the two they know, the Congress cannot co- might be equitable distribution even Hindi-speaking States of Uttar Pra- exist. For the left a harder battle at this late hour. There is not the desh and Madhya Pradesh it is se- is ahead. slightest doubt that the vast majority cond only to the Congress. In Pun- of the people will further tighten jab, another State where the Congress The Federal Structure their belts and put up with a regime has failed to get an absolute majo- of austerity, based on equality of rity, the Akali Dal of Sant Fateh Thirty years ago the Congress suffering, if the right call comes from Singh dominates as the principal party took office in seven provinces the right men. If an appeal is made constituent of a united front. In under the Act of 1935 which pro- to their sehse of honour and dignity, Bihar, which is also lost to the Con- vided for a limited measure of pro- the people will go all out to achieve gress, the strength of the Jan Sangh vincial ,autonomy; 20 years ago it self-sufficiency. It will all depend on in the assembly is not inconsiderable, formed a Government at the Centre how the non-Congress government though the second party is the SSP. as well. The change brought about functions. It will have the good A different picture is presented by in 1967 will revive, though in a wishes and co-operation of all those Kerala and West Bengal alone where different form and under vastly al- who have shown a new sense of res- the left is superior to the right para- tered circumstances, some of the ponsibility in the elections. Though ding under any name, though in the fundamental issues involved in the they. have high hopes, they will not latter the Swatantra and the Tan scheme which took shape in 1937. demand manna overnight if the men Sangh have made their first depior- The most obvious difference derives now coming to power can create in able infiltration. from what happened in 1947, but it them a feeling of participation in the In their present predicament the is ,remarkable that even that major difficulties of decision-making. Congress leaders will be eager to seek change has not resolved the most im- the support of their rightist allies in portant problem that was sought to Tempered Rejoicings States where their party is in a mino- be tackled in 1937. Twenty years rity. This will hardly require any of Congress rule in independent In- The general election has worked 'ideological or programmatic compro- dia have not unified the nation. .drastic changes in the political land- mise, for over the years the sIJcialism Cultural or emotional unity has al- scape of India. The people have re- and secularism of the Congress have ways been largely a myth; even the fused a fourth term to the Congress been so diluted as to make their dif- facade of political integration has party in seven marc States as they in ference with the economic policy of crumbled. In spite of its shaky Kerala had done before. But much the Swatantra and the revivalism of majority, the Congress wilI still be more spectacular than this defeat has the Jan Sangh marginal. There is a in a position to retain Central con· been the humiliation that the all- chance, not so remote as some would trol. But what kind of control can India leaders of the party have suffer- like to think, of even an adjustment a Congress Government at the Centre ed at the hands of the electorate. between the three on the national exercise-morally or in actual prac- The caucus that ruled the party and, level so that coalitions on State levels tice-over a nation large parts of through an unsure and hesitant may function smoothly. This would which have refused to let the party 11 Prime Minister, the country has been solve the problems of the Congress have any further say in the adminis- disgraced, and the syndicate is in a in many States at least for the next tration of their own affairs? On shambles. The party has developed five years. The Swatantra and the what authority can this Government a crisis in its highest echelon from Jan Sangh may be as willing to try to maintain strong Central con- which it may not recover, for its un- enter into such alliances to thwart trol over Kerala which has voted tidy directors will not permit a new all progressive forces, for they are no Communist, Madras which has chosen leadership to grow till the organisa- less inveterate in their hostility to- the DMK, Delhi which has welcomed tion has disintegrated completely, as wards the left as the Congress is. the cow-protectors, or Orissa whose in Kerala. Even in the absence of such alliances preference is largely Swatantra ? Even It is I).O doubt some comfort that the left parties have little to rejoice in States such as West Bengal, Bihar the bell has at last tolled for the ,at the electoral success of the right, and Uttar Pradesh, where the non- Congress in half the States of India though it has been at the cost of the Congress vote was shared by more and most of the party bosses. But Congress. A government of the Swa- than one or two major winners, the

4 MARCH 3, 1967 J ~-~...,....,

I 3li' .v·~ '; •.,"_' ._,__~~- - .:, "~-'- ----.. . . . -. , NOW

Congress party's right of strong fede- for strong federal control. If it did, still. But look at the huge heap of ral governance will be seriously ques- it would be appropriate to recall political carcasses all over the place .•.•• tioned. what the Congress itself said about Mr Kamaraj, the Congress Presi- A broad-based national Govern- the federal scheme evolved in Lon- dent, has to be mentioned first in any ment at the Centre may be theoreti- don in the 1930's; the limited mea- order of precedence, if only because cally attractive, but it is impossible sure for provincial autonomy was only the strong, silent man of the party, to see how it could work-even in the a partial answer to the Congress de· the undisputed leader of Tamilnad, unlikely event of the Congress agree- mand. Now the Congress will have has been humbled by an obscure stu- ing to share Central authority with to deal with similar demands from dent leader belonging to the Dravida others. There is a limit to political other quarters; both Mr Namboo- Munnetra Kazhagam. The all-In- expediency; the principal parties re- diripad and Mr Annadurai have al- dia colossus, the supreme architect of presented in Parliament are so remov- ready urged greater autonomy for two successIons to the prime minis- ed from one another in their ap- their' States and the demand will be tership, apparently had feet of clay proach to national and internation- raised in other parts of the country right in his own home dIstnct. On al affairs that a coalition Government as well. The feeling is so widespread the west coast Mr Sadoba Patil, the can have no common programme ex- that any attempt to ignore or repress darling of some film stars, and of cept one based on platitudes about it will generate further disconten t Washington, the "finisher" of Mr honesty, efficiency and service. Can and disorder; a plan should be Krishna Menon, the "boss" if ever one, for example, conceive of a Gov- evolved as soon as possible to grant there was one, has fallen too with his ernment with Mr Morarji Desai as greater autonomy to the constituent enemy. He had said that Mr Krishna Prime Minister, Mr Minoo Masani units of the Indian federation. This Menon could be selected for the Con- as Foreign Minister, Mr Balraj need not be a plan for disintegration; gress ticket only over his dead body. Madhok as Defence Minister, Mr in fact, it can be the only step to Mr Menon, whose fate, Izvestia said, Hiren Mukherji as Finance Minister, check the process of disintegration would show which way India would Mr Lohia as Education Minister, that will set in if an unrepresenta- go, did not get the ticket and lost and perhap's Mr Ganesh Ghosh in tive Central Government tries to en- his seat; but somewhere around is charge of the Ministry of Home Af- force its writ all over the country. the dead body of Mr Pati!, an. un- fairs? Speculation on how such a Much can be said for a strong Cen- gainly sight. Now, young man, go Government would function could be tral Government in a nation that is , east, and see the unpretty corpse of highly entertaining. But the think- united, but the fact remains that Mr Atulya Ghosh, another king-mak- ing of men like Mr Rajagopalachari ethnic and religious differences have er, another strong man, though not who have been asking for a national always kept India seriously divided. all that silent, another member of Government might not, after all, be Administrative integration, under Bri- the so-called "Syndicate". The Con- so bizarre. Perhaps they want a gov- tish and Ccngress rule, has done little gressman who "thinks young", Mr ernment of like-minded people from to remove, or even to reduce, these Biju Patnaik, is gone too. Air crashes the Congress, Jan Sangh and the differences. The only force that are getting too frequent. Swatantra, the three largest parties could drown these differences' i~ a The roll call will take a little long- in the Lok Sabha. Just consider how progressive social, economic and poli- er. Mr K. B. Sahay, Chief Minister truly representative such a Govern- tical philosophy. While we must of Bihar, has been defeated from two ment would be of the people of hope for the emergence of such a force constituencies; the thought must be Kerala, Madras and 'Vest Bengal. throughout the country, we must also cold comfort to him that he might 0, the idea of a national Govern- recognize present realities which make have been defeated from sixteen. Mr ment at the Centre, whatever might it impossible to combine strong Cen- Bhaktavatsalam, Chief Minister of be its composition, makes no sense. tral governance with the fundamen. Madras, on whose name there is a Comparison with coalition Govern- tal requirement of popular repre- pun in Tamil which is too well ments in some States would be mis- sentation. known to require repetition, has gone leading. The non-Congress parties under too. Mr Gurmukh Singh in West Bengal, for example, can find The Pack-Drill Musafir, Chief Minister of Punjab, is a large enough common programme out-as is Mr Prafulla Sen of West for a coalition Government in the Hollywood, which created the star Bengal. .The Gandhi of Arambagh State's immediate economic and admi- system, today finds itself nearly des- is said to have found a flat in P¥k nistrative tasks, such as effective food troyed by it. Names came to be all Street (south of, we take it) ; the new procurement and distribution and that mattered. pola Negri, Mary address itself may explain part of his measures against corruption. But Pickford, Greta Garbo, Ramon Na- defeat. Congressmen were getting fundamental policy differences will varro, Marlene Dietrich, Marylin too "uppety". The defeat of Mr Nila- be inescapable at the national level; Monroe ... one could go on indefini- mani Routray is contained in the first no party can ignore or evade them tely. Then came the showdown for four letters of his surname. ~ith0l!t seriously compromising its show biz; the importance of the story There is, however, no basis for the ll1tegnty. and its treatment had meanwhile hope that" with the defeat of the What then is the solution? Neither been forgotten. It may be wondered Food Minister, Mr C. Subramaniam, a Congress Government nor a Gov- whether something very like it has and the Housing Minister, Mr Mehr ernm~nt of like-minded elements in not happened to the Congress Party. Chand Khanna, there will now be Parliament will be even broadly re, Mrs Indira Gandhi has indeed not (to adapt a Churchill ism on· Emma- presentative of the nation as a whole; been defeated; what they call the nuel Shinwell) a plenitude of food it could not therefore claim authority charisma of Nehru apparently works and that houses will now grow like

MARCH 3, 1967 " 5 mushrooms. Even if it is to be held specially on foreign policy, but re- since President Soekarno set his face - against All India Radio and the lentless critics of the corrupt regime agains,t the 'tVestern Powers. For Press Information Bureau that Mr of the Congr,ess. Voices of dissent much less an offence (I) Iran's Pre- Raj Bahadur, Minister for Informa- are always t.o be preferred to the tribe mier, Dr Mosadiq, had been over- tion and Broadcasting, has been de- .of what P. G. Wodehouse has called thrown by a CIA-organised coup. feated, the Press in Calcutta may be "nodders", a atste lower than "yes- Indonesia also had been receiving the shortsighted in rejoicing over the de- men", men who are not allowed even CIA's lavish attention long before feat of Mr Tarun Kanti Ghosh; he to say "yes" but can only nod. The the luckless Untung struck the des- will now have more time to devote to refinement seems capable of exten- perate blow to smash the pro-West- his papers. In Rajasthan Mr R. R. sion: What is one to think of those ern Generals' plot. It is also known Morarka was perhaps his own execu- who have scraped through with a from American sources that on I the tioner. As Chairman of the Pl\.blic handful of votes, against the majo- CIA's advice the U.S. Administration Accounts Committee, he did more rity? Mr C. B. Gupta ofluttar Pra- had continued providing aid to Indo- than most people to bring into the desh romped home with a majority of nesia, in spite of President Soekar- open some of the darkest deals of 70. Mr Ram Manohar Lohia's ma- no's close relations with China. Many the Congress Party; and now he has jority did not exceed 500. Some got of the Indonesian army leaders, brief- gone down with the Congress. The in with less than of 20 per cent of ed by the CIA and under the direc- need for the PAC's vigil, of course, the votes polled. The people have tion of General Nasution, had been 'remains. spoken all right; but the disc is crack- biding - their opportunity and this Mr Ajit Prasad Jain, the man who ed in too many places. When the they seized in the fateful' September. would not be Governor, or so he says, needle descends on it" the music is October of 1965. has also been rejected. Now perhaps going to be full of discordant notes, Yet with all their brutal and bloody he would like a governorship, after perhaps not wholly untruthfully. efforts to wipe out popular resistance, all. Mr Sachin Chaudhuri, Union Generals Nasution and Suharto are Finance Minister who was or was still unsure of their hold on the In- not responsible for devaluation /in Not The End donesian people. The Communists June last year, -was defeated by a re- have been broken but are unbowed. markably large maiority; whether he The news from Jakarta is all too Even the Army itself is divided in its would now like the High Com. in like a shadow play, many of whose sympathies. Not for nothing did Dr London is unknown. It is, however, clues are missing. President Soekar- Adam Malik speak of the looming far more difficult to think of alterna- no's struggle for -political (and per- threat .of a civil war. Already there tive berths for Mr Sudhir Ray Chow- sonal) survival cannot be the whole are outbreaks of violent conflict in dhury and Mr Nepal Roy. story. The President may have been, Central lava between the anti-Soekar- But the electorate's refusal to be as reported, forced to surrender his nites and the anti-American national- taken for granted has not heen less executive power to General Suharto. ist and left-wing forces. Significant- unkind to politicians of the non-Con- But this power at -present could not ly also, a sectjon of the Indonesian gress ~enre, whether true blue or deep really have been much. For since yauth is challenging the military red. The Swatantra Partv has scored the abortive 1965 coup Dr So~karno junta's hold over the so-called stu· significant or sinister gains; but Mr has been step by step deprived of his dent movement against President N. G. Ranga has !!one with the wind once-supreme authority. He is vir- I Soekarno. lust the same. The Tan Sang-h has' . tually a prisoner in his palace, his President Soekarno has no doubt been another beneficiary of the wind movements strictly limited and his committed many indiscretions. But of the rightward chang-e hlowing - direct ,approach to the people seve-- his many marriages could hardly be through the country: but some of rely restricted. Even so, the ruling called one, in Indonesia of all places. its victories are perhaps ncg-ativc- military junta is fearful of his undi- Some of the over-selfrighteous Indo- reflecting- discontent ag-ainst the Con- minished popularity. This is the only nesian top brass are as much married gyess rather than endorsement of the power DJ1 Soekarno still possesses, and have been as extravaQ"ant as Sangh's insensate ohscurantism; in and given a chance he could easily the President. The fact is 'that Dr places like Delhi the lack of an alter- rally popular support to upset the Soekarno is still identified with a native channelled anti-Cono-ress votes military junta's well-laid plans for popular cause and is capable of chal- inte the Tolly's Nullah that is the putting Indonesia firmly into the lenging and setting at naught the Jan San~h. Western camp. pro-Western plans of the Nasution- Nor was Mr Krishna Menon the Not long ago the Indonesian Fo- Suharto-Adam Malik gang. President only victim of popular mistrust of reign Minister, Dr' Adam Malik, let Soekarno's disgrace .or dismissal can the indeterminate prol!ressives in be- out the secret; he warned that there therefore settle nothing; the strug- would be civil war if President Soe- tween. Mr K. D. Malaviya will not gle in Indonesia will go on, in spite karno refused to quit. Dr Malik has be he;:lrd in the next Lok Sabha; of the temporary advantage General been most active in winning back the nor wil1 Mr Homi Daii, a fairlv deft Suharto enioys with the support and favours- of the Western Powers. And raiser of dust or Q"ossamer. If Mr approval of the Western colonialists. Sadhan Gupta of the CPT (M) lost, as one reporf reveals, there are tempt- ing offers from the West to General The aid and comfort Moscow still SO did Mrs Renn Chakravarti of the extends to the milit.ary regime in CPT. AmonQ" the "gonners" are also Suharto on condition that he quick- ly get rid of Dr Soekarno. Admitted- Indonesia justly calls for a searching Mr 1- B. Krinalani and Mr H. V. study of this murky power-political K"math, both very articulate MPs ly also, the military junta has had game. who were .often tatally wrangheaded, close connexions with the CIA ever MARCH 3, 1967 6 - "- ...... diripad and Mr Annadurai have Delhi Leuer been saying much the same things on- • this), but what has not been appre- ciated so far is the depth of the anti- And Now The Dead-Centre Centre feeling in both the States. Both suffer from a sense of remem- bered wrongs. 1£ rice proved the FROM A POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT undoing of the Congress in Kerala, along with the shipyard agitation, as THE storm signals have been Kerala wanted the Congress to win their party men say, the blood bath hoisted in the South and cri- ag~inst the DMK-Ied front in Madras. of the anti-Hindi riots and the me- tical confrontations between the Touring the Southern States two nacing prospect of domination by a States and the Centre are ahead. The weeKs before the poll, this correspon- Hindi Centre have isolated the Con- .syndicate and the junior coterie dem came across enough evidence to gress in Madras. called the Indicate have been smash- suggest that the two Unite? Fro~ts In Kerala people have contempt ed up and the leadership tussle a. in Madras and Kerala provIded VIa- for the Congress and Mrs Indira the Centre has acquired new kinks ble, resilient alternatives to the Con- Gandhi. The average voter who and contours. With Mr Kamaraj's gress, and non-Congress Ministries backs the Communist parties has not defeat (his statue on Mount Road in the two States were certain. The forgotten that Mrs Indira Gandhi as in Madras has all but been removed mass mood was in favour of a change. Congress President engineered the to the museum) died the biggest Mr Kamaraj's defeat was anything "Liberation Struggle" and subverted political myth rationalised into a but personal. An unknown DMK an elected Government. In Madras charisma and fobbed off on the peo- functionary, a student leader of the the people feel that the Congress is ple by those who traffic in public 1965 anti-Hindi agitation, could an instrument of North Indian domi- credulity. Moscow, which read in trounce him in his home constitu- nation and the Madras Government the overrated strongman's political ency. Mr Kamaraj did not go down did not stand up to the Centre's poli- horoscope a manifest destiny for him to any old political adversary of sta- cies which were loaded against the different from that of Mrs Gandhi ture. His was part of the total rout South. or of the Congress, would not like of the Congress in Madras State. The These are in addition to other to admit its folly now but mnst have r~sults in Madras underlined the major factors which caused the Con- realised how wrong the dope it got failure of the national Press to re- gress defeat. from New Delhi could turn out to port the truth about the Congress Where do we go from here then? be. As expected by many, the right and Mr Kamaraj. Much has been Mr C. Subramaniam warned before has effected a massive breakthrough made of the stable and efficient ad- the poll that a DMK-Ied Government while the rejection of the Congress ministration that obtained in Madras. in Madras would mean clashes with has been total all over the country. It has always been there and the the Centre. Mr E. M. S. N amboo- All this is in one dizzy week and people owe this to themselves and diripad had told this correspondent what have you ... not to the Congress. Much was early in February that if the Con- New Delhi is now sitting up to a made of the fact there were no fac- gress really lost five or six States as new reality which it disliked ponder- tions in the Tamilnad Congress. expected, "anything was possible". ing over in the past. Even as early This is yet another myth. Factions The Congress Centre, surviving pre- as mid-January Central Intelligence have always been there since 1926. cariously on a paper-thin margin reports reaching New Delhi predict- Mr Kamaraj's election as TNCC pre- looking to right reaction for support ed Congress defeat in the South in sident over 20 years ago was a stag- in any crisis, might reconcile 'itself addition to a rightist landslide in gering triumph for his faction to rightist governments in Rajasthan the Hindi States. But long used to against Rajaji's. So the final victory and Orissa but would not telerate feeding on rosy reports, the Central in Rajaji's private drama of venge- for long the ministries in Kerala and leaders did not take the warning ance came last week. What provides Madras. about Madras seriously. The "Left an ironic footnote to it is that Mr The DMK Ministry in Madras Establishment" in New Delhi ridi- Kamaraj had clandestinely abetted would force the Hindi issue with the culed those who spoke of a possible the DMK's growth in Madras and Centre. There is no constitutipnal DMK victory in Madras. Let it be had promoted it in so many ways as or statutory guarantee for continued recorded that Mr Kamara j developed a counter-weight against the Commu- use of English as an official language some vague fears about the future of nists. In 1954, this correspondent with associate status. The promise the Congress in Madras soon after had reported the by-election cam- to non-Hindi people made by Mr the Ernakulam session of the AICC paign in Gudiyattam where Mr Nehru remains to be implemented. but hoped that he could pull it off Kamaraj, as Chief Minister of Ma- The composition of the new Lok with some difficulty. A rash of ins- dras, was the candidate opposed by a Sabha would make impossible any pired articles in the Left Establish- Communist. The DMK was the legislation on language to give effect ment journals confidently predicted princ~pal campaigner for Mr Ka- to this assurance. The three-langu- the doom of the DMK. It would mara]. age formula is a Congress innovation have been less unpardonable if this In the two contiguous States of and if the State Government decides had been done with any conviction. Madras and Kerala, the new. Minis- to reject it in Madras, what can the The same set of persons and journals tries to come in are determined to Centre do? which wanted the Leftists to win fight the Centre (both Mr N amboo- In Kerala, the first major coufron- MARCH 3, 1967 7 NOW

tatlon between the State and the tre around in the past and stage- Sangh. Things have reached the -Centre would be on food. Kerala manage successions. The State Con- point of a national coalition which earns 30 per cent of India's foreign gress bosses are still relevant to the both Washington and the Swatantra exchange but the Centre would not functioning of the Congress at the party have been aiming at. The CIA assure the State enough food to meet Centre. The Chief Ministers had is reported to have intervened in 50 its 50 per cent deficit. Would the become a powerful factor during the select constituencies and the funds Centre force the Congress States to last days of Mr Shastri and have con- were passed on to certain candidates -was fall in line with the plan for a Na- tinued to be so since. But a few through a big business house to ward cou tional Food Budget which would en· non-Congress Chief Ministers, some off any suspicion. The Washington ger sure equitable sharing of the food of them of Mr Namboodiripad's sta- lobby succeeded in getting several wer deficit? It has failed in the past tute, would lead to an imponderable candidates defeated but also failed to em and would fail in the future. If situation for the Congress. If one ensure victory of its own candidates. slo Kerala forces the issue and if the in· of the Chief Ministers demands that As for Mr Krishna Menon's fate, see telligent J{erala electorate is taken the DIR should be scrapped or that it is of little consequence or signific- ing into confidence by the State Govern- it should not apply to his State, how ance now whether he wins or loses lion - ment about the Centre's attitude would the Centre take it? .J>ecause the people have given their fam] the situation that would develop The immediate preoccupation verdict against the Congress all over hun would be the reverse of the libera- among the Conrgess leadership is the the country. But if the ongress tion tion struggle. It would be a mass choice of a new Prime Minister. moves right at the Centre and some mg upsurge directed against the Centre. But the larger issues of Centre-State States like Kerala and Madras want of t' The DMK can work up a similar up· relationship are building up. As for to move to the left, they would be ship surge on food prices and the Salem the direction of national politics colliding head on. Developments it i shipyard, while on Hindi the flash· there is little doubt that it would be leading to this are to be watched in it n point would be ._uch nearer. towards the right because the trun- the next three months. duct cated Congress in Parliament would close Vindictive ? look to the Swatantra and the Jan February 26, 1967 and Political observers in New Delhi pIe a admit, however reluctantly, that the allo Hindi North, however anti-Congress, The Debacle In Bihar Mini would be vindictive towards Madras, lic Q Kerala and possibly West Bengal. A continuing crisis in Centre-State RAMESH U~DHYAYA Euph relationship is in the offing. In the T States lost by the Congress, wher~ PATNA and, coalition governments are not POSSI- A LL cocky forecasts about the initial phase of electioneering in the had! ble, President's Rule would be in- Congress winning an absolute State that even the Congress top bass, rIa aj evitable. The President of the fu- majority in Bihar have proved un· including the Congress President, Mr vinc ture would be an active participant true. The party has licked the dU'st Kamaraj, and Mr Morarji Desai, were torat in the Government.· The Congress in the State and all opposition parties not allowed to address election meet- And had sought to solve national issues at have gained at its cost. ings by hostile crowds at a number rural the party level. With this situation Tht ignominious defeat of the Con- of places. The very sight of a khadi- nisat ending, the President would be the gress in Bihar is particularly signifi- clad per~on drove the people wild to se person to watch. cant. In Kerala which has the high-. and rampaging crowds attacked tra- gross In the context of the mauling the est percentage of literacy in the coun- ditional Congress institutions like buti Congress has got all over the coun- try the Congress debacle was a fore- khadi bhawans and party offices, set- count try, it cannot make a party issue of gone conclusion; in Madras the Con- ting on fire a number of them. But tors the Presidential election this time. gress lost despite the Congress Presi- the myopic Congress leaders continu- Th The Congress strength in the legis- dent's claims of a good administra- ed to make smug forecasts about their ubiq latures and the Centre has been re- tive record, but here in Bihar the victory, treating all the while the wake duced to a point where the automatic Congress downfall is a classic instance volcanic public outbursts against their hollo election of a Congress nominee as of what an illiterate and phenomenal- party as a mome.ntary phenomenon I3"r~w- Pre}ident despite a Congress majority ly backward people can do when their which would wear off at the polls. lrn,ga in Parliament would be impossible. patience is stretched to breaking What ,are the factors responsible farm The Presidential candidate would point. The results have flabbergast- for the Congress rout in the State? the 1 have to be decided in consultation ed political pundits, dazed and dis- Before we proceed to analyse them had with the Opposition. mayed Congressmen who had failed it needs to be stressed that the dis- schem The Centre is virtually dead for to see the writing on the wall. enchantment with the Congress, to t the moment. At the time of Mrs Election eve saw unprecedented though in varying degrees, is a coun- wond Indira Gandhi's election, a Chief turmoil in the State-it was a tense trywide phenomenon. It should also !!one. Minister, angered by the insinuation period punctuated by mob violence be noted that just on election eve the distru that the Chief Ministers did not have and police firings and even the elec- Bihar Pradesh Congress, in a bid to and i a vote in the contest, said "What is tions were marred at a number of win over the electorate, sprang an now the Centre if not a combination of places by violent clashes among rival election manifesto promising aboli- droug- the States?" The Congress satraps groups. So intense was the ant·i- tion of land revenue, quick execution ang-er from the States could push the Cen- Congress mood of the people in the of minor irrigation schemes, a fair The moori 8 MARCH 3, 1967 MAR

- - ,,-~ .. --- ,,------, .' . . .'. .•. NOW

deal to non-gazetted employees, stu- manner in which relief was siphoned As a leading Congressman put it, dents and teachers. But the electo- off to Congress henchmen like the attempts to defeat an important rate evidently was not taken in by gram panchayat mukhias in the hope partyman by rival factions in the these sops nor was it convinced by that they would get votes for the party led to the defeat of 20 Con- Congress arguments that if the party ruling party alienated the rural elec- gressmen. was overthrown, democracy and the torate once for all. The Congress to country's stability would' be endan- them, as also the urban masses, had Lok Sabba Results gered. The roots of discontent here become synonymous with corruption The election results show that were too deep to be sHaken by these and jobbery. In the urban areas casualties among the Congress rank empty promises, these grandiloquent other factors fanned the discontent and file have been heavier than slogans. It was there for everyone to with the Congress to an explosive among the ministerial ranks, which see that while the people were groan- point. The agitation by non-gazet- concentrated all their resources on ing under the price spiral and mil- ted employees and teachers ,for high- their respective constituencies and lions in tlle countryside, hit by near er wages and the widespreaa student left the former to fend for them- famine conditions, were battling with unrest were the major ones. And on selves. The Lok Sabha results, how hunger and privation, the rival fac- the top of these came the successive' ever, reveal an entirely different trend. tions in the State Con?;ress were fi?;ht- police firings at a numbet of places, The Congress has scored convincing- ing like kitten over the distribution including Patna. To make things ly over the other parties. At the time of tickets with an eye on the leader- worse the administrative rot in the of writing, it has won 33 out of 52 ship of the party. They had done State was mounting every day, with seats declared as against 39 in the !t in th~ past a~~ they were doing corruption and casteism at its peak last elections (only one result remains It now, httle realIsmg that their con- in the Government. The Centre and to be announced), the SSP 7, the duct and performance were being the Congress High Command, how- CPI (Right) 5, Jana Kranti Dal 3, closely watched this time by an alert ever, failed to take note of the grow- Independents 2, .lana Sangh and PSP and conscious electorate. The peo- ing resentment of the people. I1 dis- one each. An interesting feature of ple also n~ted that the Congress party posed of the charges against the State the Lok Sabha elections is that while allotted tIckets even to discredited Ministry summarily at a political the Congress candidates have been ~inist~r~ in utter disregard to pub- level. It is true that when doubts defeated in the Assembly constitu- hc opmlOn. were expressed about the State Gov- encies the Congress candidates for the ernment's ability to shoulder the Lok Sabha have won. The Union Euphoria burdens of relief there was a move Minister of State for Railways was Twenty years of uninterrupted rule to usher in President's Rule in the elected from Buxar parliamentary and absence of an effective opposItion State. But it is equally true that the constituency while all the six Con· had generated a characteristic eupho- move was given up 'following politi- gress candidates in the Assembly con- ria among Congressmen who felt con- cal pressures. stituencies thereof were defeated. One vinced that all 'was wen with the elec- Despite the strong popular up~ conceivable explanation of this could torate so far as they were concerned. surge against it the Congress has em- be that public feeling against the sit- And they particularly banked on the erged as the largest single party, al- ting Lok Sabha members of the Con- rural electorate and the party's orga- though some of its leading lights, in- gress was perhaps not so strong be- nisational efficacy at the grass roots cluding the Chief Minister, Mr K. B. cause the electorate did not have the to see them through. But they had Sahay, the Pradesh Coni&ess Presi- opportunity bf watching their per- . grossly miscalculated not only here dent, Mr R. Mishra, the Community formance from a c'ose range . but in the urban areas also where they Development ,Minister, Mr S. K. The party that made the most of counted on the support of contrac- Bage, and three Ministers of State the people's upsurge against the Con- tors and industrialists. have been defeated. It is not sur· gress is, of course, the SSP which has ,!"he. resentment wit.~ the party was prising that the Chief Minister should increased its strength from 10 to 67, ubIqUItous. In the vIllages, in the have heen vanquished because he, as It has emerged as the second largest wake ')f the calamitous drought, the the leader of the par.ty, was the main party after the Congress in the hollowness of the Government's target of the Opposition onslaught. Assembly. The SSP has been in the grow-more-food plans and its minor fIe was also sabotaged by his party limelight ever since it began spear- irrigation schemes had dawned on rivals, His principal ally and sup- heading public agitations agailist farmers and farm labourers. During porter, the Public Works Minister, price rise, corruption and adminis- the last three plans over Rs. 40 crores Mr R. L. Singh Yadav, however, trative bungling. It had also the had been spent on minor irri?;ation scraped through despite sabotage by advantage of a sound organisation schemes with little resultant b~nefits his party rivals. So did the Minis- with branches spread over both the to the parched countryside. One ter of State for Finance, Mr Ambika urban and rural areas. The CPI wondered where all this money had Sharan Singh, :whose opponent was (Right) has doubled its strength from gone. Over the years the farmers' actively supported by his party rivals. 12 to 24. It would have fared better distr~st and dislike of the Congress It was a cake-walk for the former but for the war of attrition between and ItS Government was growing and Chief Minister, Mr B, N, lha, and it and the CPI (M). A notable vic- now in the wake of misery that the the Irrigation Minister, Mr M. p, tim of this feud was tQ.e leader of drought unleashed, the simmering Singh, who won by a shattering mar- ,the CPI group in the Bihar Assem- ang-er exploded into a massive revolt. gin of over 31,000 votes. The bitter bly, Mr Sunil Mukherjee, who lost The Congress had clearly lost its caste rivalries and in-fighting in the in Jainshedpur to a Congress woman moorings in the rural areas. The party has cost the Congress dearly. because the Communist votes were

MARCH 3, 1967 9 ~ divided. The performance of the in the State is coming only now; let would like to walk over to the Con- CPI (M.) was creditable because it us see how the new G;)vernment gress but they dare not do it for fear won four seats for the first time in handles it", they say with a mischiev- of public disgrace. the State. The Jana Sangh has in- ous chuckle. Among the Opposition creased its strength manyfold-from parti.es too there may be some who.. February 26 5 .to 26 although it has divided both Congress and Opposition votes. The Jana Kranti DaJ, which was born too late to be recognised by the Election Commission, has won 23 seats (its Calcutta Diary Chairman, Mr Mahamaya Prasad Sinha, claims that at least 15 out of CHARAN GUPTA 24 Independents belong to his party). This was good showing in view of T HEY almost had not made it. If Among its two major constituents, the fact that the party was formed the United Left Front and the the BangIa Congress has fared slight- just before the elections. The PSP, People's United Left Front had not ly better than I expected~securing which has been anaemic ever since it been at each other's throats, tJleir 9.8 per cent of the total as against broke away from the SSP has more victory over the Congress would have my prognostication of 9 per cent, but than doubled its strength although been altogether more decisive, and this is balanced by the performance its Chairman, Mr S. N. Singh, and the contortions about how to form of the Right Communists, who could the leader of the PSP group in the a . stable government would 'have secure only 5.6 per cent of the aggre- Assembly, have been defeated. Even been avoided. The Congress would gate vote as against my forecast of he Swatantra party which has no have go_t 44 less seats if the two 6 per cent. moorings in the State has gained four Fronts were not involved in intra- • • seats. . mural quarrels. There is no ques- It may come as a surprise to many tion that the lack of an overall alli- people, but where I went wrong was Programme ance between the opposition parties in my assessment of the Congress With the Congress routed in the has hurt the ULF more (as the post- party's strength. In terms of votes State an opposition coalition gov· election analysis on another page polled, the Congress has done much ernment in the State is almost a cer shows). Similarly 7 more Lok Sabha better than I expected. As against tainty despite the recalcitrant atti- seats could have been won by the op- my forecast of 35 per cent, the party, tude of the Jana Sangh. The Right position, namely, Howrah, Uluberia, for both the Assembly and the Lok Communists, one of the constituents MaIda and Serampore (which the Sabha seats, has succeeded in secur- of the United Opposition Front, were ULF lost on account of PULF inter- ing 41.5 per cent of the total vote. the first to speak their mind on the vention), and Ghatal, Raigunge and The ULF has fared correspondingly formation of a non-Congress Govern- Bongaon (24-Parganas). Adding up worse as against my -expectation of ment in the State. Mr Sunil Mukher- win because of the presence of ULF 31 per cent, it could obtain barely jee and Mr Jagannath Sarkar (MLC), candidates). Which is all (a great 27 per cent. Granted that it was an while promising the support of their pity. uneven election: there was no dearth party to Opposition efforts to form I have culled the rresults of the of ·r sources for the Congress, and a Government, have said that such a individual constituencies from news- the machinery of the State was un- government should evolve a common papers, and have somehow missed flinchingly made use of to improve programme to abolish land revenue, the voting figures for Howrah Cen- the electoral prospects of Mr P. C. extend irrigational facilities on a war tral, Bharatpur (Murshidabad) and Sen, Mr Atulya Ghosh, Miss Abha footing and order judicial probes into Bongaon (24-Parganas). Adding up Maity and the rest of the Congress all recent police firings. The new the figures for the other 277 consti- claque. Still, it is a sobering thought government, they said, should also tuencies, I find that my clairvoyance, that, even today, two out of five per- inquire into corruption charges as stated in the columns on the eve sons in this State vote for the Con- against Ministers and confiscate their of the election, is none the worse for gress. Only one out of five has vot- ill-gotten wealth as a first step to- the wear. The tot",_ vote cast for the ed for the Left Communists; one wards eradicating corruption from Assembly constituencies has been out of ten for BangIa Congress, one public life. close to I crore 24 lakhs. Out of out of twenty for the Righ Commu- The Congress leaders are mean- this, the Congress has secured a little nists. while watching from the sidelines more than 51 lakhs, the ULF a little • • opposition moves to form a govern- less than 33 lakhs, and the PULF The results of the elections in the ment and are only too eager to throw roughly 25 1akhs. The Left Com- State have highlighted a number of a spanner into these efforts if they munists on their own have got al- incongruities. The Left Communists can. There are some amOI'lg them most 24 lakhs, the BangIa Congress polled almost double the number of who brazenly proclaim that in a few slightly more than 12 lakhs, and the votes cast for BangIa Congress, yet, months they would again get their Right Communists less than 7 lakhs. compared to the latter, it secured only opportunity because "the Opposition I have been correct almost to a dot 9 more seats. Certainly a number of Government, new as it is to the task in my forecast on the PULF's perfor- things went wrong with the election of administration, is bound to make mance. I had suggested that it would strategy of the Left Communist a mess of the whole thing". "After obtain 20 per cent of the total votes party. There was a disproportion- all, the worst phase of the drought cast; it has in fact got 20.3 per cent~ ate allocation of its resources as be-

10 MARCH 3. 1967 tween the so-called "prestige" seats erness. I think the Opposition par- A Brief Analysis like Dhakuria and the Calcutta ties are commlttmg a major mIstaKe North-East Lok Sabha constituency m trymg to fOIm a ~uYernment m th~e -where it tried hard to turn back "State m the present sItuatiOn. t:upho- By POLLSTERS the Right Communists-and several na, to whIch almost everyboay seems potentially winnable seats. elsewhere. to have fallen a victim, is a bad T HE statistics of the general elec- Many of these seats-such as Kalighat, substitut{1 for long-range planning. tions of 1967 should be inter- Shyampukur or Taltola .in Calcutta One can smell a rat: the alacrity esting by themselves. Weare pre- -were lost not on account of the with which the Congress agreed to senting below an incomplete analysis PULF, but because that last clinch- - step aside should itself make the of the West ~engal elections based ing thrust was missing. It could also whole business suspect. Even if the on the results published in the be that, in several middle-class areas ULF and the PULF set together, newspapers. At· the time when these the China issue did hurt the Lef~ their majority in the Assembly will data were tabulated the results in • Communists, even if marginally. A be nowhere near comfortable. ~The only 10 out of 280 constituencies pourgeois housewife or office-goer, next six months will be most diffi- were not obtainable. Calculations otherwise aghast with the Congress, cult from the point of view of food on the basis of fuller reports-and has perhaps at the ·last moment balk- supply, particularly since Mr P. C. presumably more accurate ones-are ed .at voting for an allegedly pro- Sen, in a last desperate bid to sal- under way. However, the margin of Chmese party. To the extent this vage an already-lost election, deci,ded error cannot be SO large as to vitiate has happened, the deliberate playing in December to give a carte blanche the conclusions based on the data up for days on end of scare stories to the rich producers and growersJ we have used. on China'~ cultural revolution by If the Centre does not offer adequate There are wide differences in the EstablIshment newspapers, with cooperation, there is bound to be rates of voter participation . in some able assist from the sidelines acute distress in the coming lean the different districts of West by the. Rig:h~ Communist journals, months. Mr Atulya Ghosh's strat<:gy Bengal. In this State in the 1952 has paId. dIVIdends. Ano!her point seems to be to' saddle the L.ommumsts General Elections about 60.7910 of the of some mterest to note IS that, in and Ban la Con ress with the respoB.- electorate exercised their franchise. the aggregate, the Left Communist Sl iiit of ee m t e eo e urin In 1957 the proportion increased to candidates for the Lok Sabha seats this peno "'" to make political capital 68~%. In the next General Elections have polled almost three-and-a-half of each minor difficulty, to raise hell 10 million out of 18 million cast their lakh votes less than what the party within the legislature, and generally vote, 1.e. about 55.3910 of the electo- has secured ~or the Assembly seats. Ito try to prove to all and sundry rate. In the latest Election in . Th~ electlOns show t~at the one- what an incompetent lot the Leftists West Bengal the proportion of tl~e :nfl.uence of the Righ Commu- and BangIa Congress are. It is pos· valid votes to the total electoral msts 111the Howrah-Hooghly, Bar- sible that, if things really rot, some strength was 62.2910' The proportion rackp.ore, and Burdwan-Asansol in- of the unattached Independents might was higher in the districts of Nadia, dustnal belts has evaporated. In start wavering, which might force the Midnapore, MaIda, Howrah, Hoogh- terms of votes polled, the relative new government to resign. The Con- ly, Coochbehar and Calcutta-in all s!rength of the Left and Right par- gress could then demand a fresh elec- cases over 60%. 'The proportion was tI~S works out at 3.5: 1. Another tion. . between 55 and 60% in the districts p.Iece.of statistics. that I might. men- A vastly superior strategy for the of West Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and tlOn IS that, takmg the. two parti.es Opposition parties would be to. ask Murshidabad an~ in the other dis- . together, the. Commumst. vote 111 immediately for another election. tricts it varried between 48% and West Bengal IS exactly what it was Now that an asssessment is available 54910. in the 1962 elections, pre.cisely 25.1 of the comparative strength of the / There is a positive correlation be- per cent of the total. ThIS may not respective parties, it should not be tween the literacy rate and the extent r~pre.sent much progress. But con- difficult to form one broad electoral of voter participation. In the districts sidenng ~he trouble and turmoil the alliance. Many of the sceptics and where more than 30910 of the people ~ommumsts have gone through dur- fence-sitters, who could riot honestly are literate (Calcutta, Howrah, 111gthe last five years, their ability believe that the Congress could be de- Hooghly and 24-Parganas) about to r~ach back to the 1962 figure can feated, would also join in, since they 64.7910 cast their votes. In the dis- by Itself be regarded as sufficiently now know that this can be done. tricts with a literacy rate! ibetween remarkable. Such an alliance, I have no doubt, 20% and 30910 (Bankura, Birbhum, •• would trounce the Congress about as B.urdwan, Coochbehar, J alpaiguri, Mine may be a voice in the wild- effectively and. thoroughly as has Midnapur and Nadia) on the aver- been done in Kerala and Madras. age voter participation has been Backed by a substantial l!lajority in lower, about 59.3910' And in districts Subscribers' should inform us the Assembly, the government form- with a lower literacy rate only about at least two weeks in advance of ed by the alliance could then look 56.7910 have exercised their franchise. any change of address. The forward to solid constructive work ~hese fig~re~ about. voter participa- for a spell of five years, and it would address label from the latest issue tIOn are sIgmficant 111that they pro- be beyond the capability of Mr Atulya vide an index of political conscious- should be sent with the new Ghose to take advantage of any tem- ness. address. porary difficulties. But perhaps this The most remarkable feature of the Business Manager week I constitute a minority of one. 11 MARCH 3, 1967 party-wise voting pattern is the big stituting the P,!,LkF; besides, there Letter From A.merica slump experienced by the Congress. was another group of 16 "un- While it improved its position from identified" Independents who were 38.2% in the first General Elections instrumental in the victory of the to 47.4% in the third, this time it Congress candidates. \The par~ The CIA And The declined to 41.3ro of the total ¥alid that suffered most was the CPI- votes cast. Under the system of single- with some 27 seats; It also inflicted Intelligentsia- I member constituencies that we have, most of the damage on the PULF, this 6.1 fall in votes has been having caused as many as 9 out of ro Rom CHAKRAVaRTI enough to rob the Congress of an the total of Ii avoidable 10SSe~ The overall majority in the new Assembly. BangIa Congress lost 4 seats thIS wa , A good part of the votes was taken ut ma e e • ose e cor- THE revelation that the National away by the BangIa Congress which res pan mg gures for tohe other par- Student Association has been bagged some 9.5% of the votes. Ob- ties are CPI 7 and 6, FB 4 and 2. Be- su bsidized by the CIA for fifteen viously, the BangIa Congress voters tween the two CPs, the CPI-M suf- years out of twenty years of its exis- were not merely disaffected Congress fer in 6 and the CPI in 4 constitu- tence has outraged student leaders voters. Ola the other hand the Com- encies only; just by themselves they and liberals. Student leaders across munists just about maintained their managed to give away at least 10 the country are indignant, and judg- relative strength; while the united seats to the Congress. ing from a cursory glance at some party won 25.4% of the votes in These figures, however, do not tell student publications, there is wide- 1962, the CPI-M got nearly 18.lro the whole story. Although both the spread angry talk on how lower with CPI obtaining some 6.5%. If Fronts publicly called' on the electo- echelon oflicials have been duped by we add up the percentage votes ob- rate to vote for the other Front's can- a handful of officials of this organiza- tained by their com ituent units the didates in preference to a Congress tion who alone knew the deal with ULF got 25.4% and PULF 2...0.7%. nominee, there was a great deal of the CIA. '1nus the two Fronts together com- animosity at the base. A whole lot The criticisms by persons known manded 46.1 % of the votes which is of energy was spent on constituen- to be liberals leave much to be desir- of about the same magnitude as the cies where rival Left candidqtes were ed. Even when the CIA deal with Congress votes in 1962. Bu t they i~ the field, specially in a few "pres- the NSA was criticized, there was a have not got in 1967 as many seats tige" seats where rival Communists tendency to explain it by the 'argu- as the latter had in 1962. were locked in grim struggle for sur- ment that to counter the Communist vival or suprero:lcy. With a little bit penetration into student movements The Cost of Disunity of friendly cooperation, at least in abroad, the student leaders needed Had the same spirit of unity and -some of the seats a ULF or PULF financial support and that this was accommodation among the various candidate would not have lost by a available only from Government Left parties prevailed on the eve of narrow margin to a COAgressman in .sources. Their criticisms were main- the elections as can be seen now or a straight fight. In the category of lyon tactical grounds. Some Govern- was witnessed earlier during the such marginal seats may also be ment agency other than the CIA Food Movement of spring 1966, the added those where the Congress votes should have helped them and then, Congress would have suffered a spec- narrowly exceeded the combined there would have been little ground tacular debacle. If we go by the-· votes of ULF and PULF candidates. for c~iticism. This, in sum, is the current figures, Congress would still Assuming that a difference of 2,500 th~I?~ of the main trend of public be more powerful than. in Kerala, votes is a rather slender one, the CrItICIsm of the reported CIA tie-up but its seats would have been reduc- Congress won some 24 seats narrow· with the largest student organization ed by about 50. ly. The likely beneficiary of a slight in the United States. We have made some estimates as- change of wind would have secured This type of criticism misses many suming tpat a joint Left candidate 10 more seats for the CPI-M, 3 more vital points. Even the left-wing would have obtained the same num- for the CPI, 2 for the BangIa Con- weekly New Republic which wrote ber of votes as rival Left Front gress, 1 for the Forward Bloc, 5 for a strong editorial entitled "CIA candidates got separately. Thus there other ULF candidates, and 2 for the Stooges" and raised the question, were some 15 PULF nominees who Independents. "Why a secret subsidy?" failed to would ,have won from the Congress Combining the two sets of esti- raise other, more vital questions. One had there been no ULF candidates in mates, the minimum cost of disunity of them is the quid pro quo nature the same constituencies. Similarll among the Left works out at some of the deal. This was made clear there were 21 nominees of the UL 12 seats for the Congress while the when the general counsel of the CIA, w a might have been e ect.e ut or maximum could be as high as 76. Lawrence Houston, issued a half- a rival from one of the parties con- The cost to the CPI-M seems the assuring, half-threatening statement highest-it should be between 27 airped at the student leaders who and 37; similar estimates for others were privy to the deal. He said that For NOW readers in Western India are: CPI 7 and 10, BangIa Congress the student leaders broke the secu- may contact 4 and 5, Forward Bloc 4 and 5, other rity oath by revealing the NSA's link S. D. CHANDA VARKAR ULF constituents 9 and 14. It is with the CIA and that, for this breach la, Kanara House clear, then, that the split has been they would ~ot be prosecuted. At Mogal Lane, Mahim far more damaging to the ULF than the same time, he warned that the Bombay-16. to the PULF. decision not to prosecute "does not

12 ~fftRCH 3, 1967 NOW give these people carte blanche to out, but t.he extra-curricular activities Chomsky's category of scholar-experts, discuss anything further they may that the personnel associated with for he himself, by the very fact 'of know that is of a confidential nature. these organizations may have indulg- criticising them, proves that there are There is some information we think ed in. Much of the so-called "intel- significant exceptions. But the trend they should Plainly not discuss." ligence", it can be argued, are of that he mentions is noticeable and (Italics mine.) such a nature that it can be gathered its political significance lies in the Sam Brown, chairman of the NSA openly by scholars, particularly in possibility that this type of intellec- supervisory board, told a news con- open countries like India; and those tuals can be "coopted", to use a nice, ference that "sensitive information" who would like to blunt the criti- little word used by sociologists in was received by the CIA from student cisms -against the CIA's association place of the cruder, commonsense delegates sent abroad on the CIA with scholastic pursuits may perhaps word "bought". expenses, but that this if!formation cite this as part of their argument. This analysis sheds light on the dealt with personalities and politics way the intellectuals and students, in student organizations abroad, ra- Scholar-Technocrats not only here but also abroad, can be ther than "hard intelligence". This There is a deeper aspect of the and are brought under the wings of may be accepted at face value here, problem which deserves notice. organizations that. should have no but will be treated with scepticism As a consequence of the Cold War, in official connection with them. Most abroad. In any case, it is obvious many countries a new stratum of what of the intellectuals and students (you from the warning given by the coun- may be called scholar-technocrats has may add journalists, too) who may sel for the CIA tha t some of the in- been born, who are open to extra- allow themselves to be handmaidens formation supplied by the American curricular blandishments much the of Governme~t agencies, whether it student leaders JIlay have been at same way the scholar-priests of the be the State Department, Defence least of a border-line nature. It all ancient past were. These blandish- Department or the CIA, are not ne- depends on how you treSlt the types ments may not necessarily be crude cessarily scheming, mischievous types of information that the CIA reCl!iv- and the selling of one's talents or indulging in dirt.y politics. They are ed and how they were gathered in soul need not be made at one bid- intelligent, often brilliant men. foreign countries. ding. The process is subtler, and Eugene Groves, the president of the Another question arising out of here, to make my complex point, let NSA, for instance, was a Rhodes the CIA deal with the NSA is the me quote a telling excerpt from a re- scholar. What is so significant about secret, proliferating nature of the cent article by the famous American their misdemeanour is that they did CIA's operations. The NSA, accord- linguist Noam Chomsky, entitled what they thought was unexceptional, ing to Sam Brown, received CIA sub- The Responsibility of Intellectuals. and even now, when a furore has sidy through some twenty foundations Chomsky complains that a new broken over the heads, they seem to and individuals acting as cover for breed of "scholar-experts" indulging be more concerned about the scandal channelling funds from the CIA. Fol- in "value-free" technologies have ar- than the morality and ethics of their lowing up on ·he story, the New York rived. "A good case can be made", secret deal with the CIA. Times came up with a list of orga- he writes, "for the conclusion that The issue for countries outside the nizations which received CIA subsidy there is indeed something of a con- United States involves much more directly or indirectly, and one is left sensus among intellectuals who have than the state of mind of this type of with the uncomfortable feeling !hat already achieved power and affluence, American intellectuals; it involves, this is hardly the full story and that or who sense that they can achieve' more importantly, the predominant it will perhaps never be known. them by "accepting society" as it is American out.look on world affairs in Among the listed beneficiaries from anQ promoting t.he values that are general and "Communism" in parti- the CIA, there are at. least three orga- "being honored" in society. It is also cular. The predominant American. nizations that conduct operations in true that this consensus is most no- view of world politics is based on a India. Two of them are student or- ticeable among scholar·experts who bitter obsession with anti-Commu- ganizations: The National Student are replacing the free-floating intellec- nism and it must also be added, that Press Council of India and Interna- tuals of the past.. In the university, the American view of Communism tional Youth Center, New Delhi. The these. scholar-experts construct a is loose. To people who run orga- third organization, The Institute of "value-free technology" for the solu- nizations like the CIA and the FBI, Public Administration of New York tion of technical problems that arise even people of moderate liberal views which, in collaboration with Indian in contemporary society, taking a may pass as Communist ogres. In scholars, has published several mono- "responsible stance" .. This consensus view of earlier revelations of CIA graphs on aspects of the greater Cal- among the responsible scholar-experts activities in the New York Times, it cutta Metropolitan Area. .A couple is the domestic analogue to that pro- is also obvious that the CIA can be of monographs published by this or- posed internationally, by those who trig~er-nappy and has often proved to ganization that came to my notice, justify the application of American be impertinently so. Combine these are well-documented pieces in areas power in Asia, whatever the human two features of the CIA's stance and such as municipal finance, for ins- cost, on the grounds that it is neces- figure out for yourself whether the tance, on which very little work has sary to contain the "expansion of CIA's involvement with American in- been done under purely Indian aus- China" (an "expansion" which is, to t.ellectuals and students abroad can pices. . be sure, hypothetical for the time always be explained away as inno- The point at issue is not, however, being". cuous, as some liberal critics (inclu- the quality of the products that these It is not, of course, true that all ding even James Reston and Walter organizations may have been put.ting American intellectuals belong to Lippmann) are trying to do.

MARCH 3, 1967 13 used to bring student leaders from tested to university authorities, and as The- CIA And The the developing countries to the Unit- a result several of these usually secret ed States, and to organize seminars. research contracts have been cancel- Intelligentsia- II In addition, the NSA maintained a led. This increasing fund of money number of travelling representatives has, in a way, corrupted the academic who regularly visited the developing world. When huge sums of money PHILIP G., ALTBACH areas and reported on developments are available to study, say counter- in student movement. NSA repre- insurgency in Thailand or the deve- RECENT exposures of close con- sentatives occasionally financed fac- lopment of' toxic chemicals, many nections between the American tions or student organizations wpich scholars are tempted to become ser- academic community and the Central they felt were important. This dir- vants of the government and the mi- Intelligence Agency and other govern- ect interference in the affairs of stu- litary rather than the abstract notion ment agencies concerned with intelli- dent mo'V6m.entsin foreign countries of "truth". The American academic gence and external subversion ,have was unknown to the American stu- world, as a result of this new source caused a good deal of emb" assment dent community, although it was re- of money, becomes a kind of arm of t.o both educators and government sented overseas by student leaders. official government policy. Thus, officials. More important, however, Thus, it is not entirely clear that academic freedom and traditions of is the fact that traditions of indepen-" the National Student Association did independent sholarship are subverted dent scholarship and research are be- not engage in kind of "intelligence" not by repression as in Communist ing destroyed by the involvement of "work which may have ~been useful to or Fascist countries, but by the much the academic community in intelli- American Government officials. more subtle and perhaps more insi- gence work. The most recent expo· dious influence of bribery. sure, which has linked the U.S. Na- Implications It is curious that it has not been tional Student Association directly But more important than the actio the right wing which has been the with the Central Intelligence Agency, vities of the NSA itself are the impli- accomplice of the Central Intelli· is particularly serious. The NSA is cations which the exposure has for gence Agency and other agencies, but the largest and most prestigious Ame- American academic life. Starting rather the liberals. The NSA case rican "student organization, represent- with the ill-fated ~"Project Camelot" is a good illustration, for the policy ing well over one million American -a multi-million dollar research ope- of the organization has been so libe- students. The NSA has "never been ration sponsored by the U.S. Army- ral that many of the more cOnserva- known as a left-wing organization, al- and extending to include the key role tive southern universities .have quit it though its stand on racial integra- of Michigan State University in creat- in protest against its policies. Prac- tion, academic freedom, and student ing dictator Diem's secret police, the tically all of the officers and staff rights has been widely respected. "credibility" of American scholars members, particularly those responsi- NSA's international programmes, and other representatives overseas has ble for international programming, while less well known to American become very suspect. Noone can be have been strongly liberal in their students, have made it the major sure that an innocent sounding re- own views. Nevertheless, they were spokesmen of the American student search' project sponsored by some ~ willing to participate in projects community overseas. American foundatJon is not a "cover" funded by the CIA and to indirectly The NSA recently admitted, un- for an intelligence operation. The work for its policy objectives. For der the pressure of an expose in valuable research produced by Ame- years, American liberals have been Ramparts magazine, that it has re- rican scholars concerning aspects of accused of being "dupes of the Com- ceived an annual grant of $200,000 development may well be endangered munists". In fact, they have often from the CIA through various "inde- by the use of scholarly enterprises for been dupes of the anti-Communists. pendent foundations". NSA spokes- other purposes. And there is no The implications of the NSA expo- men stated that this relationship end- reason to blame foreign countries for sure, the "Camelot" incident, and ed in 1965, no doubt after other ex- _ distrusting Americans under these c~r- inevitable future disclosures will fur- posures of CIA influence were brought cumstances. Thus, the large maJo- ther decrease the credibility of Ame- to light. The justification given by rity of American scholars overseas, rican scholarship overseas. Indeed, the NSA, which has been strongly . who are committed to purely acade- it is difficult to see how supposed pro- liberal in its political orientation, mic research, will suffer because of fessionals in the area of spying and was that it felt it was necessary to this interference with university au- intelligence could be sufficiently stu- counter the influence of Communist tonomy. pid to risk a student organization student movements on the interna- Within the United States there are carefully built up over fifteen years. tional scene, and the only source of repercussions of government interfer- It is possible that the CIA is in dire funds was the CIA. The organiza- ence in the academic. world. Increas- need of a James Bond with a pipe tion denied that it engaged in intel- ing amounts of money are given to and academic title instead of an ligence work for the American Gov- the universities by the U.S. Govern- Aston-Martin automobile. But equal- ernment. ment for the purpose of research. ly important is the implication that There is no doubt that these expo- Many of these grants concern the de- American higher education is becom- sures have destroyed the internation- velopment of chemical and biological ing increasingly involved with the al programmes of the .NSA. Never- warfare, or other rather questionable policy aims of American foreign po- theless, its international stance raises enterprises. Recently, student groups licy, and that important traditions of some important points. Much of the and concerned professors have dis- independent scholarship and acade- money received from the CIA was covered such actIvities, and have pro- mic integrity are being destroyed

MARCH 3, 1967 rectionists in the north. The Thai- for helping the revolt and infiltrat- Thailand : A Military land build-up is aimed at China." ing it. The Senate certainly knows. Not There may be an element of truth Springboard long ago, William Fulbright, Chair- in this, but Washington has found a man of the Senate Foreign Relations convenient excuse to carry the war Committee, said he believed that the to North Vietnam, as well as to keep SHANKER GHOSH "real purpose" of the United States Communist China at bay. Not only in Asia was to stay there indefinitely all U.S. air strikes against Commu- NEW YORK.-Another Vietnam to counterbalance Communist China. nist forces in Laos originate in Thai- is, perhaps, taking shape in The development of air and supply land, but 80 per cent of the air raids Thailand, quietly an'd without much bases on a wide scale in Thailand on North Vietnam are carried out publicity, while ~he Vietnam war is supports his feeling, he added. "It from Thai bases. Both Bangkok and being steadily escalated. The John- is almost incredible to think that we Washington do not however like to son Administration, after persistent ate doing this as a temporary opera- talk about it publicly. denials, has admitted that Ame- tion." While talking freely about the rican helicopters recently flew Thai U.S. presence in general terms, ac- troops in an effort to crush the so- Containment cordlllg to the Times, Thai leaders called Communist insurgency in the The real aim of Washington, no have "never informed their people north-east provinces of Thailand. doubt, is the cont.ainment of Red that their country is being used as This belated acknowledgment only China, as also to provide alternative a U.S. military base for bombing at- confirmed the fears of some respon- bases for American troops, who some tacks" against North Vietnam and sible public figures that the United day will have to leave Vietnam either the Ho Chi Minh trail. Even most States was turning Thailand into a through negotiation or torce. people in the United States were huge military complex. For some It is therefore not surprising that kept in the dark until recently and time, it has been known that some of both Bangkok and Washington did not know what the U.S. planes the most modern air and naval bases should regard South-East Asia as a in Thailand were up to, either. are being built in Thailand, but the strategic entity in a military sense. Administration has deliberately kept "Vietnam, Laos and Thailand," writes Nuclear Weapons a tight IiI?' Hanson Baldwin, military editor of The Thai ruling generals, it is be- It is belIeved that the United States The New York Times and supposed liefed, have not stopped there, but has five or six major air bases, with to be a leading defence expert in the gone a giant step further in allowing 400 planes and many helicopters. On country, "have long been recognized the United States to introduce nu- the Gulf of Siam, a multi-million- by military officers as strategically in- clear weapons in their country. This dollar port is now under construction divisible." So, Thailand is also a is a closely guarded secret, but the at Sattahip. There are also some country geared for war., though Thai other day the editor of Al Ahram and 35,000 American troops, as well as leaders are said to be highly reluctant confidant of President Nasser disclos- some 400 civilians, including 100 to admit it. ed that the Americans were making Peace Corpsmen. The troop build-, Though in name ruled by King "nuclear preparations in Thailand" up is expected to go up steadily, as Phumiphon, Thailand is actually to deter Communist China from en- in the recent past. . ruled by army generals. It has there- tering the Vietnam war. This build-up is rather negligible, fore firmly thrown its lot with the From. all accounts, it is therefore compared with the present build-up United .States in Asia since 1950, becoming increasingly clear that the in Vietnam. Even so, it presents a when it sent troops to the U.N. force John~on Administration is closing in picture similar to the beginnings of in Korea. In 1954, it joined SEATO on the Chinese, perhaps, slowly pre- U.S. military invfillvement in South and at the height of tlie Laotian paring the ground for a military con- Vietnam in the late fifties, when the crisis in 1961-62 it permitted the sta- frontation with them now, rather Diem regime. sought Washington's tioning of 5,000 American troops on than three to five years hence. It is, help in combating the Vietcong acti- its soil. Since 1954, Bangkok has indeed, obviously apparent that it is vities. In Thailand, too, Washing- been receiving an average of $40 mil- no~ Hanoi but Peking that W';-h. ton says AmeFican troops are there lion worth of military aid a year ington is trying to get at. . from Washington. This was raised at the req:-~st of the Thai Govern- to $60 millioJ;l. when President John- . At any rate, .the. fact that the Arne- ment. son visited the country during the •..., r~can~ are bnngmg. grave nuclear But few Americans take this expla- Manila conference. ' nsk~ m South-East Sia can no longer nation seriously. Writing in the !~ailand has a population of 30 be Ignored. There may n~t be any Washington Star, Ricard Wilson de- milhon, with 130,000 men unaer love lo~t between the Indians and clared: "Eventual joint and com- arms. The present regime is cons i- the Chmese, but we should not for- bined operations of the Thai forces dered to be oppressive to the peasants get that the destruction of China is and the U.S. against the Communist and some American aid advisers have not our surest defence against Com- forces of the north are in the plan- found that Government "presence" at munist threats on our northern bor- ning stage. The Senate should know, village level is lacking. No wo cr ders. It has been amply demonstrat- if it does not already, that the build- ~he peasants. are, increasingly rising ed in the past two years that the up in Thailand far exceeds the re- l~evolt agamst th~ ~ove~nment, but greatest threat to mankind may yet quirement of fending off the few t~e J<;>hnson Ad!llIlllstratI?n .blames come not from Peking but from hundred hardcore Communist in5ur- VIentIane, HanOI and Pekmg mstead Washington. MARCH 3, 1967 15 .•. between you and me...

•../ ·1 am so happy "

It was an easy delivery. God bless you, my daughter. The lady doctor is very able and kind.

When I was your age, I remember, my sister died in confinement. The do; could not manage the case. There .was no hospital within 15 miles. We hurried to fetch the lady doctor in the town, but it was too late. She had a car but it could not reach here. We were unlucky.

The same year, was It 19441-more misfortunes fol/owed. Two of my uncles died of malaria. Uma's father was one. Then my cousin Arun's entire family was afflicted with smallpox. We prayed; they recovered, but badly damaged. Renu, the youngest lost her eye-sight. .

Thank God, we don't hear of pre-mature deaths so often now. Really, things have changed. Plan means , '. ; Progress

- 1951 1965 Hospitals & . •Dispensaries 8,600 15,000

Doctors 56,000 103.000

Medical Colleges 29. 81

Expectation of Life at Birth 32 50 Japan. The present culuual rev lu- China And Our Mandarins tion, which is a continuation of the class struggle in the cultural sphere, also basically {ollows this well-tested Reversion To Barbarism ?-II method. A long editoial o{ the Red Flag in early December, 1966, while calling for' extensive democracy" said MONITOR that without such e.'tensive demo- cracy, without hundreds of millions T HE necessity of a cultural revolu- tic method-the "mass line" -by en- of people paying attention to State tion being admitted, the next couraging the initiative and the ac- affairs, supervising the organs of the question is how to carry it out. In tive artici ation of the masses in t11e party and the State, and supervising other words, how can the people in ea Illg questIOns 0 tate and so- the leading cadres at all levels, it is a socialist society reject the ~ourgeois ciety. One of the persistent "dogmas" impossible to prevent the usurping of world outlook and accept the prole- of the Maoists is trrat it is only the leadership of the party and State by tarian, Marxist-Leninist world out- masses that can liberate themselves counter - revolutionary revisionists". look? There are mainly two ways: ad- through self-education and participa- Here is the gist of the whole method ministrative-bureaucratic and revolu- tion in all aspects of the battle for so- of conducting the cultural revolution. , tionary-democratic. Some people think cialism. (The Maoists hold that often that once the seizure of power has the party organisations themselves A Continuing Process been effected and property relations with their own set of entrenched in- How has the present movement have, in the main, changed, the only terests in maintaining the status quo developed?l As we have indicat- need is to spread education and cul- are incapable of carrying through a ed above, the present cultural revo- ture among the masses--of course in revolutionary measure) This "blind" lution is not something disconnected the spirit of socialism-and carry for- faith in the masses educating them- with the past but a more rapid ad- ward science and technology all along selves through struggles has been with vance in a direction long followed. the line. All this can be done by the Mao from his very early days. Thus Leaving aside the beginnings of the socialist government mainly through in June, 1m, Mao launched the ideological revolution in the liberat- laws, regulations and administrative "land verification movement" in the ed areas before 1949, the present re- measures. In fact this has been the Chinese Soviet Republic-a move- volution can be shown to be the dir- predominant trend in the socialist ment to verify whether land dis- ect out.come of a process that was countries hitherto. Undoubtedly this tribution had been properly carried initiated shortly after the seizure of is important. However, this consti- out. Mao utilized this seemingly power. There have been several tutes only one aspect of tlie problem innocuous movement to promote po- stages in the process, all having a mass -maIll!'y quantItatIve. It does not litical consciousness among the pea- character: the movement against touch the aspect of struggle and con- sant masses by making them actively three evils (corrupt.ion, bureaucracy, tradiction in the cultural sphere in a participate in the movement and waste) and five evils (bribery, tax socialist society. In other words, to thereby showing them the true na- evasion, theft of State property, cheat- ./ put the thing a little more schemati- ture of their class enemies. He him-' ing on government contracts, steal- cally, as regards the basic dialectical self described a few months later ing economic information for specu- phenomenon, "the unity of oppo- what had happened in a model dis- lation) in 1952; the anti-rightist sites", the hitherto existing practice trict: "For 55 days the masses of the movement of 1957; the movement has emphasised, once the seizure of whole district were set in motion. against rightist opportunism in power is completed, the aspect of The feudal remnants were radically 1959; the socialist education move- union and harmony and practically destroyed. In the course of the veri- ment started in 1963 which is still neglected the aspect of opposition and fication more; than three hundred continuing. struggle in the sphere of culture in a families of landlords and rich pea- The socialist education movement, socialist society. sants were discovered, twelve counter- started first in the countryside, ga- Along with this there has been an- revolutionary elements, called 'big thered momentum in the summer and other, and often complementary, tigers' by the peasants, were shot, early autumn of 1964 and became trend, particularly in the Soviet and counter-revoI'utionary activities known as si-ching ("Four clean-up" Un'::m and in those socialist coun- were repressed." (Translated and cit- movement) -"cleaning up in the po- tries that blindly imitated the Soviet ed in Stuart Schram's Mao Tse-tung model-creation of "revolutionary (Pe~in, '1966, 'p. 167). . 1We have drawn on the following culture" by bureaucratic and. s~et In January, 1934, summing up the sources: People's Daily editorial of July 17, police measu.J:es. thereby trying to whole work, Mao added significantly, 1966, "A New Stage of the Socialist Revo- ~ve thp prohlem at one stroke. "To conduct these tasks solely through lution in China" (English translation). There was a radical departure from the activities of a few Soviet func- R. Guillain-Les Mystere des Gardes Rouges Iall this in China. There, while tionaries involves the danger of low- -Le Monde, November 2, 1966. David spreading education among the ering the fighting spirit of the Bonavia and a Special Correspondent- masses and creating favourable con- masses". Later the same method of Heirs and Successors-Far Eastem Eco/lo- ditions for the great advances in "mass line"-"from the masses to the mic Review, June 30, 1966. 01ina 1966- science and technology, the ruling masses"-was applied by Mao in all Annual Survey-Far EasteY/! Economic Re- party tried to solve the contradictions spheres of activity during the civil view, ·Sept. 29, 1966, Cina: domande e re- following the revolutionary-democra- wars and the war of resistance against flessioni-Rillascita, Jan. 6, 1967. t MARCH 3, 1967 17· NOW litical, economic, ideological and ot· 1962 the class enemies at home launch· marred by the "insignificant" fact ganisational fields". The present cul- ed severe attacks on socialism and that about half of the CC communi- tural revolution is basically the si· consequently once again a fierce class que itself is devoted to the interna- ching applied predominantly in ur· struggle ensued". Thirdly, in the tional situation of which one whole ban areas. ideological field the trend towards re- paragraph deals with Vietnam I The cultural revolunon can be ,visionism was clearly visible in such Secondly, the class struggle in the fully appreciated only as a part of persons as Yang Hsi-chien, party ideological field and hence the resis- the socialist revolution that is still theoretician and heaa of the Higher tance to the campaign has turned out continuing in China accompanied by Party School where he was lecturing to be much more stubborn in the great convulsions in her political and in 1961 on his theory of "two com- cities-particularly in the centres of social life. These convulsions, in bines into o~e'.'. His theoJ;y, taken education-than in the countryside. their turn, can be properly under- from the classical Chinese philosophy, This is hardly surprising/in view of stood only in the context of the over- amounted to the assertion that in dia- the fact that it is in the cities that riding preoccupation of the Chinese lectical relation between opposites the pressure for bourgeois consumer leaders with the danger of creeping unity is primary, struggle secondary. goods is the greatest, foreign influ- revisionism leading ultimately to ca- Already in its session of Septem- ences strongest, the last remnants of pitalist restoration in their country. ber 1962, the CCP Central Commit- capitalism most concentrated and the This preoccupation, almost amount- tee took serious note of the situation opportunities for the bourgeois acade- ing to an obsession, is the direct out- and decided to cleanse the party and micians to propagate their ideas most ..". come of what they have witnessed in society of bourgeois and revisionist" extensive. The strength of this re- the international Communist move· influences. This sociallst education sistance explains the particularly mili- ment in recent years. Particularly campaign and the si-ching were more tant and aggressive form of the mo- alarming to them has been the state or less the direct result of this deci- vement in the urban areas. In fact of affairs in Eastern Europe and the sion. the leadership seems to be on the Soviet Union where there has been whole satisfied with the operation of an accelerated growth, inside and New Dimensions th~ Revolution among the workers outside the ruling parties, of bureau- ,Since 1964-1965 the movement has and peasants. Thus the PeoPle's cracy, careerism, vested interests in assumed two new dimensions. First Daily on September 15, 1966, stated maintaining the status quo and a is the huge American build-up in that "It is not necessary for the Red frantic drive for material comforts a Vietnam which, in the eyes of the Guards 'l-nd the teachers and students l'americaine. This degeneration is Chinese leaders, constitutes a direct ... to go to factories and rural areas the cause as well as the effect of what military threat to China herself. A to exchange revolutionary experience constitutes in the eyes of the Chinese journalist as well-informed as Ecigar and interfere with the arrangements leaders the essence of revisionism as Snow even considers that ~America there. The workers and former poor manifested in the attitudes of the ana China are already at war even and lower-middle peasants are entire- leadership of those countries to the though there is not yet a direct con- ly capable of carrying out well the question of war and peace, character frontation between their armies, just revolutionary movement in their own of the national liberation movement, as there was no precise moment when units" . transition from capitalism to social the Americans thought they were at In the cities the revolution seems ism, nature of the State in socialist war with Vietnam") ("Le Guerre to have started with the despatch of society etc. What disturbed them Sino-Americaine" in Nouvel Obser- work teams to different universities most was the fact that their own vateur, July 27-August 2, 1966). In and with the attack on the existing house was not in order. There Were this context the cultural revolution, educational system as fostering bour- several danger signals. In the first the mobilisation of the Red Guards geois and revisionist ideas and hence place, in spite of the heavy blow and the new role given to the Peo- being a misfit in a society building that the Khrushchev leadership had ple's Liberation Army accompanied socialism. Within a short time a dealt China in the economic and by increasing democratisation in its number. of leading university and military spheres in order to put pres- ranks are steps taken to militarise, party offioials were dismissed in differ- sur,e upon her, there were people unify and keep the whole country in ent universities. Of all the cities like Peng Te-hai who wanted to re- ,readiness. The present cultural re- Peking, it seems, was the very citadel establish good relations with the So- volution cannot indeed be fully ex- of revisionism controlled as it was viet leadership for political as well plained save in the context of the by the "black gang" of the Peking as economic reasons, Then again, U.S. aggression and its increasing es- Municipal Committee associated with during the lean years from 1960 to calation in South-East Asia. Here Wu Han and his protector Peng 1962, when the Chinese leaders were again Mohit Sen scores a brilliant Cheng. It was only with the dismis- obliged to relax some of the rigidi- victory over the Chinese. To prove sal of the Peking University Party ties of the economy and thereby al- that the CCP leadership is not earn- Committee In June 1966, .that the lowed a period of comparative laxity, est about the Vietnamese liberation cultural revolution became a mass a number of people (including war he refers to the "irrefutable" movement "never before known". It cadres) seem to have taken advan- fact that the tc resolution on the is also not accidental that the Red tage of the situation and there seems cultural revolution does not contain Guards (hong wei bing) first emerg- to have taken place a good deal of one word on Vietnam. Nothing can ed in Peking on a mass scale. mismanagement, graft and other types be more conclusive; indeed the re- of corruption. Later Chou En-Iai him- solution does not mention Vietnam. Red Guards self admitted that "from 1959 to His victory, of course! is not at all Who are these Red Guards shaking

18 MARCH 3, 1967 China from one end to the other that the League should accept "Marx- the youth as a whole but base itself with their central slogan, "Smash the ism-Leninism and the Thought of primarily on the sons and daughters old and set up the new" (Yo Chiu Mao Tse-tung as the guiding of the workers, soldiers and the form- Ii hsin)? Have they sprung forth thought", should "put ideological erly poor peasants. In 1965 a new Athena-like, without warning, from work in the first place and persist in campaign was launched within the Mao Tse-tung's head with a mighty the line of upholding proletarian broad framework of the socialist edu- war cry and in complete armour? ideology and eliminating bourgeois cation movement-an intense politi- Have they, moreover, ,been formed ideology". What Yang Hai-po, First calisation of children and their teach- independently of the Party organi- Secretary of the Third Central Com- ers. sations and against them with no mittee, said to the young revolution- Without waiting for the results of working-class participation? We hold aries Was particularly significant. He all this preparatory work, without that like the cultural revolution it- pointed out that China was still in a waiting for the Red Guards, the cul- self the Red Guards are also the out- transitional period from capitalism tural revolution was launched in the come of a process, that, secondly, they to Communism which would take autumn of 1965. No name was yet are very much under the overall Com- some "five to ten Or more genera- given to the movement and no noisy munist leadership and that, thirdly, tions". .Class differences still existed. publicity accompanied it. Then sud- the overwhelming majority of them Simply as a process of peaceful evolu- denly in April 1966 it was carried to are the sons and daughters of the tion socialism might-as in Tito's broad daylight under its own name. workers and peasants. Yugoslavia and Khrushchev's Russia The Red Guards passed through a The beginnings can be trac~d to -degenerate into revisionism and similar process. It was precisely in the summer of 1964. During the capital,ism. Secondly, for lack of dir- April 1966 that they began to orga- Ninth Congress of the Communist ect revolutionary experience and ig- nise without any name being to them Youth League the new generation of norance of pre-liberation struggles, and without any publicity. It is to- China came to learn from Mao and China's youth may lack "a deep un- wards this end that the Ninth Cen- the party that the time had come for derstanding of the complexity and tral Committee of the CYL met in youtp to take over the leadership of hardship of the revolutionary course" plenary session. (April 1966). It ter- the revolution from the old and that and hence be vulnerable to bourgeois minated its work with the declaration this crucial role would devolve upon influence: At the Congress the CC of a "new wave of revolutionisation those among the youth who would of the League was almost completely of the youth" and by anno1.lncing that prove their fighting spirit and Maoist reorganised and its cadres at the base all youths should be trained into new purity iin course of revolutionary were purged. It was resolved that the Yii Kung "to remove the three moun- struggle. It was then emphasised League should extend its activities to tains of imperialism, modern revi-

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NOW sionism and the reactionaries of energy and intolerance that their been reformed and not at all dissolv- various countries", On. May 4, Youth inspirers can desire. ed and it is from the latter's ranks Day was celebrated with great glamour As regards their formation it ap- that a large number of Red Guards and the League's Journal of the Chin- pears from the CC resolution that came, ese Youth announced "a violent class they are presumably modelled on the Two slanders are disposed of easily struggle". On the same day the en- democratic structure of the Paris here, Adhikari says that "the leader- tire national Press revealed and de- Commune. They are organised in ship does not expect the Party orga- nounced an anti-Party conspiracy companies, sections and squads. They nisations at all levels to come forward hatched by the bourgeoisie ,and the have their headquarters in the pro- to rouse the masses for the move- revisionists. On May 17 a new call vinces, in the cities, in the universi- ment", Mohit Sen is even bolder. went out to the youth: "Fight the ties, in the schools. They have also AccordinK to him the CC resolution opponents of the Thought of Mao their own internal police. They "calls upon the Red Guards to 'dis- Tse-tung 1" Three events rocked have, it seems, become organs of pow- miss from their leading posts all those Peking less than a fortnight later- er in the cultural re\Colution, as the in authority who are taking a capital. the fall of Peng Chen, liquidation of CC resolution indicates. By rotation ist road'." (our italics). Let the text the Peking Municipal Committee of the loc.al Guards from different pro- of the resolution itself answer these the party, purge of the National Uni- vinces go to Peking for training. charges: "What the Centra,k<:om-' versity of Peking. At the same time They spend a part of their day in mittee of the Party demands of the the units of the Red Guards-with- studying and discussing mainly Mao Party Committees at all levels is that out yet carrying any name-appear- Tse-tung's thought, and the rest in they persevere in giving correct leader- ed at Tsinghua University in Peking, military training. ship, . ,boldly arouse the masses .. ,· The Red Guards began their opera- and dismiss from their leading posts tion inside the educational institu- No Party Fetishism all those in authority who are taking tions ;recusing the bourgeois and re- What is their relation to the Party? the capitalist road", (our italics), visionist elements among students and They constitute undoubtedly a sepa- teachers. On Jure 13 the universi- rate organisation. Mao and his com- Excesses ties and other institutions of learn- rades might have thought that the The movement has undoubtedly ing closed for eight months thus en- party organisations are not always the been accompanied by some excesses abling millions of young men and best media for carrying out this un- and, in some cases, serious breaches 01 women to participate in the cultural precedented revolutionary task, main- discipline. But in such a vast move- revolution. Towards this end, on ly because their officials, themselves a ment where for the first time in his- June II, the CYL journal called up- bureaucratic elite, were often interest- tory hundreds of millions are "storm- on "one hundred and thirty million ed in maintaining the status quo. The ing heaven" these excesses were not young men and women", One June revolutionarie5, it may be pointed unexpected, least of all by the party 18 it published a call to the "youth out, have never any party-fetishism leadership, as is evident from the of the Left" and on June 23 a long even if it is the Communist Party, CC resolution itself. But there is text asking the leaders to conquer the Lenin had spoken of purging the little to show that the mOre extre- masses of youth. "Those who remain Party "mainly with the aid of the ex- mist Red Guards have acted on or- in the centrist position", it warned, perience and suggestions of non-party ders from higher quarters. As the "will inevitably undergo a violent workers" which would mean "an enor- _ movement spread to different cities, disintegration; we can win the majo- mOlls achievement for the revolution". the authorities, though expressing rity of them for the Revolution". On (Purging the Party (1921) -Selected "firm support" and approved of the June 24 the Red Guards of Tsinghua Works, II, p. 745. Our italics). To Red Guards' actions saw the need to proclaimed in their posters, "we want a certain extent the Cuban Revolu- issue instructions to them. Thus the the smell of powder", During the tion went through a similar process. PeoPle's Daily in its editorial of whole month of July the young revo- All this, of course, is a direct threat August 28 wrote, "The 16-point de- lutionaries carried on their battle be- to the vested interests of the tradi- cision drawn up under the personal hind the walls of the educational tion-inhibited, myopic party bureau- direction of Mao Tse-tung points out institutions. When on August 18, crats who have/so long been excell- that the struggle should be conduct- after the plenary session of the CC ing in "observing Leninist norms" ed by reasoning, not by coercion or of the CCP, they appeared before in different historical circumstances- force. This is applicable not only to Mao and Lin Piao at the Tien An in the colonies and semi-colonies the handling of contradictions among Men square they were called "Red (Algeria, Cuba, India), in the metro- the people, but also to the struggle Guards", politan capitalist countries (France, against those who are taking the capi- Who are these Red Guards? Ac- Italy), in the socialist world (USSR, talist road. The Red Guards and cording to competent observers, all Hungary). However, about the over- alI other revolutionary organisations are not students, there are also work- all control of the Red Guards by the of the young people should". reso- ers. Among the students, again, the Party there can be no ques ion. It is lutely carry out the 'three main rules recruitment takes place mainly among the Central Committee of the Party of discipline and eight points for at- the. sons and daughters of the form- itself that officially launched the Red tention' stipulated by Chairman erly poor peasants, workers and sold- Guards movement on August 18; Mao,l adhere to mass discipline, de- iers. Their proletarian origin gua- 1966, by giving them a 16-point char- fend the people's interest and defend rantees t.heir unquestioning loyalty ter which became, at the same time, State property". On August 31 was to socialism; at the same time their the charter of the cultural revolution held the second mass rally on Tien extreme youth gives them all the itself, As regards the CYL it has An Men attended by half a million / 2Q MARCH 3, 1967 NOW

Red Guards. In presence of Mao of Mao (January, 1967) to the leaders of from Peking that Mao, placing the cultu- and other top leaders, Lin Piao asked the Cultural Revolution seem to be particu- ral revolution in the historical perspective, them to pay attention to the 16- larly significant. In course of a meeting pointed out at the meeting that from the points and "to distinguish who are of the Cultural Revolutionary Commtssion very beginning of the Chinesc Rcvolution our enemies and who are our friends". he is reported to have warned the leaders the youth constituted its striking force. At He then added, "Don't hit people. against extreme "Leftism" and asked them the same time the fundamental policy was This applies too in the struggle to try for the largest possible union of the to unite all the forces that onc could unite. against those persons in power who masses (News given in Red Guards' Some "puritans" asked that only the Left are taking the capitalist road and posters in Peking on January 13, 1967). should be united. "r have always been against the landlords, rich peasants, The Yugoslav press agency Tanjug repor"ts against such attitudes", addcd Mao. counter-revolutionaries, bad elements and rightists, Struggling against them by coercion or force can only touch their skins. Only by reasoning is it Th Press possible to touch their souls", Appa- ~ rently this was not enough, for the PeoPle's Daily on September II ad- Retribution In States mitted that "certain regional elements and certain persons in responsible positions have been violating the. I&- COMMENTATOR point decision of the Central Com- mittee", Another mass rally was held WITH the picture at the Centre its hold on the electorate. If trends in Peking on September II. Lin still somewhat fuzzy news- in Bihar and Orissa have run coun- Piao, while again praising the Red papers had to confine their com-- ter to this tendency, there are good Guards for achieving "brilliant re- ments last week to the election re- reasons. Bihar must necessarily be sults" called on the young revolution- sults in the States, The debacle of regarded as an exception to any aries "to learn from the workers, pea- the Congress party in eight of the theory that can possibly supply an sants and soldiers, learn from their States provided the Press not merely all·India explanation for the results extremely fine revolutionary standard with ample material to comment up- of the present election; and Orissa and their most thoroughgoing revo· on but also an opportunity to read- has not unexpectedly yielded ~ood re- lutionary spirit, learn from their sense just itself and discover virtues where sults for the Opposition precIsely be- of organisation and discipline and all it had so long found none, In the cause in a compact, though back- other fine qualities", All later direc- States where the Swatantra and the ward, State the problem of putting tives from the party and the Govern- Jana Sangh have emerged in strength together a vote-getting machinery ment have been in the same this may not be a difficult task, for that works has not been beyond the spirit.2 The basic attitude, however, they have always received a measure Opposition's limited resources. In the remains as stated in the 16- of support from newspapers, though third and final category of what may point decision of the CC: "Revolu· not on the same loud note as did the be called "middle States", like Guja- tion cannot be so very refined, so Congress, But in the- States where rat, Maharashtra, Mysore and Andhra gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, the people have expressed the prefer- Pradesh, the Congress has done about restrained, magnanimous, Let the ence for left parties discarding right- as well as was generally expected, masses educate themselves in this ist forces of all brands the papers are Such a rough and ready analysis goes great revolutionary movement and in a predicament. How the Calcutta some way towards explaining the learn to distinguish between right papers, the general policy of some of aberrations of the election results as and wrong and between correct and whom has been to criticise the Centre a whole. From the poor showing of incorrect ways of doing things", to exploit the grievances of the peo- the Congress in West Bengal and (To be concluded) ple to maintain circulation and pro- Delhi the paper wants the party to pitiate, at the same time, the Con- learn how grievously it has had to 1These were drawn up by Mao during gress Government and party bosses on pay for the luxury of factionalism the civil wars ("and the war of resistance the State level, steer themselves in and its inability to exercise discipline against Japan and later adopted by the PLA. the present situation will naturally over its membership. The, Opposi- Three Main Rules pf Discipline are: be watch~d with amused interest. tion, for its part, would be in a bet- (i) Obey orrl -s in all your actions, (ii) Do In a general review of the election ter position to offer a strong challenge not take" mgle needle or piece of thread results in the States The Hindustan to the governing party at elections if from the masses, (ii) Turn in everything Times says that the Congress has been only it could pool resources and fuse captured. decisively rejected in those education- ideologies so as to offer coherent al- The Eight Points for Attention are: ally advanced States, like Madras and ternative, not merely to produce a (i) Speak politely, (ii) 'Pay fairly for what Kerala, where the Opposition has synthetic and expedient unity which you buy, (iii) Return everything you bor- been able to sink inter-party differ- is liable to develop cracks and fissures row, (iv) Pay for anything you damage, ences and present a united front. In as soon as the early euphoria of pow- (v) Do not hit or swear at people, (vi) Do those States generally acknowledged to er has thinned out. not damage crops, (vii) Do not take liber- be "backward", the ruling party has In a lengthy advice to the Congress ties with women, (viii) Do not ill treat -in the case of some States barely, on choice of allies Patriot says that captives. in o~hers rather more comfortably- . it will be extremely unwise for Con- 2 In this connection the latest directives been able to do no more than retain gressmen to form government in States

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NOW

in which their party has been reduc- public opinion then than would be bring down the high cost of living, ed to a minority with the help of the case today". The paper says that the Government offered excuses' or, independents or by tempting mem- after the drubbing the party has re- what was more exasperating, produc- bers in other parties to come over. ceived at the hands of the electorate ed academic arguments why the cost Where the Congress has lost its capa- over large parts of the country, it of 'living should be high in a deve- city to form governments it should be would be folly to ignore the voters' loping economy. The Government's content to be in the Opposition. The desire for a change. It commends the obstinacy about Hindi alienated the Congress should accept the verdict of "rare good sense" of the Congress whole body of students and many the vote and allow the parties who leadership in West Bengal in stand- educationists. While the Congress fought it to form governments. Such ing aside "to let others have ago", leaders approached the election cam- governments may not be stable; but even though the combined strength of paign with complacency and lethargy, neither will Congress governments the two Opposition electoral alliances their opponents, marshalled by the formed on the basis of amoral power is two less than its own. If the Con- leaders of the Dravida Munnetra politics be. Political stability does gress respects the moral right of the Kazhagam with vigour. and realism not mean unity between political Opposition to provide an alternative i,n a united front, made the most of bosses 'brought by Opposition settle- government, offering cooperation on their opportunities. The paper says ments. The Congress has been expe- sensible legislation. by the newcomers, that there are many issues on which rimenting with such "unity" with- its own image might improve in the the DMK Government will have to in its own house for a number of process. A spell out of office could move wisely. Its election promise years and has learnt that in the long help to rid the organisation of dead of cheap rice would have to be re- term it neither benefits itself nor wood' and restore to it the contact deemed. It would be interesting to the country. The paper feels that with the people it once had. More see how it does this, for the nation- the central leadership of the party, if important still, a change of govern- alisation of the bus services would it really wants to win the people's ment might even bring about a not bring in the money needed. confidence, should insist on its follow- change in the popular temper by re- Then there are some social problems ers being content to remain as Oppo- kindling the sense of responsibility which need very careful handling. sition parties unless a coalition with that was ebbing away during the long The DMK should not be a prisoner "progressive groups and individuals" years of Congress monopoly of office. of its past in these matters. A diffi- is formed at the Centre itself. The A people reawakened to a sense of ~ult task faces the new ruling party strength of the Congress party in Par- their own power need not go burn- III Madras. The electorate, in its re- liament cannot be such that it will ing trams and post offices to express vulsion from Congress mistakes, has be able to say with self-confidence their feelings. Prescribing the same now given it an opportunity to prove that effective administration could be re.cipe for some other States, like Pun- its worth, to show that it can act as carried on and 'progressive policies jab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, beneficiently as it could speak power- implemented. without the help of the paper suggests that Bihar should fully from public platforms. The like-minded groups and individuals. be an exception, for that State is in a people of Madras expect much from The possibilities of such a coalition class by itself. No party, nor even a the party. at the Centre can, however, be in- coalition, - looks like being able to vestigated only after the Congress is offer stability. With the worst months West Bengal sure of its own mind. If it still be- of drought immediately ahead, the Commenting on the election re- lieves in planning and leading the proper solution is to take the State sults in West Bengal Hindusthan people towards socialism, its allies can under President's Rule for a short Standard says that in no uncertain only be parties who accept the so- period. This may hurt the am our- terms have the electors expressed their cialist outlook and programmes. If an pro pre of the politicos but it will lack of confidence in the party which alliance on the basis of ideology and certainly save lives. haS" been in uninterrupted power a programme of work is made possi- The IJndian Express, which pub- ever since independence. The Con- ble at the Centre with other Left lishes an edition from Madras and is, gress still enjoys the "dubious dis- parties, it will be easy to pick and therefore, to an extent in the same tinction" of being the largest single choos(' supporters who can give plight as some Calcutta papers, says political group in the State Assem- strengA1 to State administrations in that the rout of the Congress in bly. But that is of littl ·gnificance. which hones Congressm~n "tgo can Madras, with the Congress President It is abundantly plain that the peo- play their dUt role. Hasty and op- and the Chief Minister among the ple of the State do not want the portunistic efforts to buy support with large number of leading personalities Congress party to continue in office promise of office will further reduce defeated, should be ascribed to popu- in West Bengal and democratic pro- the prestige of the Congress. lar factors which the Government, priety demands that its mandate obsessed with rather distant objec- sh,ould be fully respected. Breaking 'Hanging On To Power tives, ignored or minimised. The WIth the past the paper says that it The Statesman also is against the electorate's verdict is not a repudia- would be wrong to hold that the Congress seeking outside support to tion of the Congress, Government's fall of the Congress has been caused form governments in some of the achievements in industrialisation, ex- by the election strategy of the Oppo- States in which it is in a minority. pansion of power supply and the like, sition alone. What was decisive, was The Congress had done it in the past, but a condemnation of its failures to not the limited unity achieved by but the analogy hardly applies, for realise that the day-to-day needs of the Opposition but the corrosion of "Congress manipulations to hang on common man are equally import.ant. faith in the abilit.y 'Of the Cono-ress to power were less of an affront to Instead of making stro~g efforts to to deliv~r the goods. If popular

MARCH 3, 1967 23 confidence in the ruling party had in the process he has not done any renrained unshaken, no tactics, how- violence to the theme or to the basic ever shrewdly planned, could have plot line nor taken greater liberty overturned its apple cart in West than what a film director is normally Bengal. The votes cast in the elec- and perfectly entitled to take. tion have been largely negative-a Matira Manisha is about a small desire for change is clearly reflected family in a typical village in deltaic but no clear indication as to the na- Orissa. The paterfamilias (Sam Pa- / ture of that change. The voting dhan), ancient and upright, having trends sugge3t that the electorate has as deep roots in the soil as the old rejected both extremes. Since no banyan tree he is seen restil)g under siob,e party has been able to achieve at the beginning of the film; the eld- a clear leaGl the ministry-making in er son (Barju), virtuous and devot- this State is not without its difficul- ed, a village Rama who gives up all ties which, however, are not insuper- to be true to the oromise he had able. It would have been wholly given his dying fatll t; the younger repugnant to the basic principles of Mrinal Sen's Latest brother (Chakari), ~arefree, fickle parliamentary democracy if the Con- and affectionate who drea, .s of tra- gress had attempted to form a min- velling to big cities; the lWO wives Istry. The right of forming a min- KIRONMOY RAHA (Harabau in the book and Netra- istry is unquestionably the Opposi- mani) , loving, testy and jealous at the tion's, and it is for its leaders to de- IT may cause reasonable surprIse same time; the money-lend~r (Hari cide how they will go about it. that Mrinal Sen should have Misra) , a small-time villain who subt- Extending its "warmest congratu- made, what is perhaps his best film ly instigates the younger brother to lations" to Mr Ajoy Mukherjee, "the so far in a language other than his demand a partition in the family. indisputable architect of the specta- own. It is true that neither the Familiar characters all, but not for cular triumph of the non-Congress 'catalogue of common happenings' of that any the less marked by indivi- forces", Amrita Bazar Patrika says a peasant fami!J rooted to a patch dual traits. They have, moreover, that here is a man who with the of land in Cuttack district nor the been shrewdly placed by the director backing of the components of the uncomplicated personae of Kalindi in the wider context of social change. alliance should be able to clear the Charan Panigrahi's well-known novel The clash between the two brothers augean stable and give West Bengal could have been beyond the know- which is the dramatic high pOilU in a clean and firm administration. The ledge or apprehension of as keen and the film, has been made to subserve leaders of the coalition in anticipa- perceptive a director as Mrinal Sen. the wider import of a confrontation tion of being called up to form gov- Nor is Oriya's linguistic consanguin- between two generations,-a rooted ernment have already turned their_ ity far removed from Bengali. Never- allegiance to the old order with its attention to the formation of an theless, and despite the ventures of simple but fierce collective loyalties agreed programme which, if pro- Polanski, Truffaut and now Kurosawa facing the assertive aspirations of perly implemented, may lift West it remains a fact that after the major youth stirred by a changing world ip.- Bengal from the morass into which mutation the cinema underwent on to demanding individual recogni. it haS f,Sunk. In the "legacy" that the coming of sound, few directors of tion. the 20-year C0ngress regime has left note have attempted or made films Chakari is of course not conscious the coalition leaders the paper in- in languages they did not intimately of his representative character. To cludes the difficult food situation and know. That Mrinal Sen has done it him his newly married wife, an ob- the "parlous state" of law and order. and has, in the bargain, made an out- ject of wonder and joy, is something Monopoly of power for long years standing film is a hopeful event in - he possesses exclusively, something had corrupted many of the COJ;lgress the otherwise gloomy world of the which kindles his longing to break leaders absolutely. The coalition cinema in India today. out and be on his own. Wisely leaders should be able to bring to It is possible that the marked em- Mrinal Sen avoids making N etra- the affairs of government the moral phasis on formal techniques and the moni an active propellent of Cha- authority which the outgoing regime reliance in the first half of the film kari's growing cupidity. The change in its last days lacked woefully. The on the purely visual-a near-docu- comes almost entirely from within millions who have voted for a change mentary style-were dictated by the and has been shown in a series of of government want a firm govern- obstacles Mrinal Sen faced in crossinlT extraordinarily tender sequences. The ment, firm in upholding justice, in the linguistic barrier. He was alsg sequences where Chakari is alone in punishing bullies and wrong-doers obviously concerned with investing his room with his wife-watching her and in protecting the weak. If there the characters with a more intellec- cut the nuts, tie the jingler to her is no political corruption in its tually acceptable motivation and a ankle and inducing her to dance, diverse forms at the top a healthy more egregious identity than are to ecstatically describing the dream to climate congenial to the flowering of be found in the novel. The script, her-have, for poetic feeling and the best. that is in West Bengal will written by the director himself, affords freshness, few equals in the Indian be at once created. ·some clues as to the manner he has Cinema. Mrinal Sen's growing mas- gone about in doing this. The trans- tery of the medium has rarely been India has started on the right path. ference necessarily involved changes, seen to better advantage than in L. B. Johnson selection and partial rescission. But these scenes.

24·_ MARCH 3, 1967 NOW Technical Skill The Actors Tbe film is, in fact, replete with Mrinal Sen has been well served evidence of the director's technical by all his associates but, most of all, skill. There is an assurance in the by the band of actors he was able to camera set-ups and movements; the gather round him. It would be un- cuts are effective; the timing is rarely fair to pick out a-nyone for particular at fault; the transitions through as- praise. Almost without exception sociative images and sound are ima- they have responded magnificently to ginative; the freeze shots and the use the demands made on them. It was of dynamic frame at one place come a revelation to see Sarat Pu jari off well; the dream sequence is a tour (Barju), Prasanto Nanda (Chakari), de force; the editing is taut without Master Mania (Sam Padhan) , Dukhi- being nervy. But with all that there ram Swain (Hari Misra), and Sujata are at places, I regret to say, sugges- (N etramoni), never faltering or fail- tions of intrusiveness, lingering signs ing to bring out with wonderful of a self-consciou~ preoccu pation facility the fleeting nuances" of a with form. It is because such signs mood or situation, and yet never at- Natanatyam' s Sankar are not there that the scenes of inti- tempting to tun away with the roles. macy and the many semi-documen- Seeing Sarat Pujari or Prasanto By A DRAMA CRITIC tary outdoor shots have become so Nanda in other Oriya films I had memorable and cinematically pure. not, I confess, suspected their re- By comparison, the· sequences markable gifts. The director has THE harm that the Biswaroopa which provide the external correla- been fortunate in having such a rich Theatre does to the Bengali tive of Chakari's change-the scenes source of acting talent. stage is somewhat redeemed by its depicting the rise in the price of But his fortune would have been patronage extended to many drama paddy-have an unmistakable st mp of no avail if he did not also have troupes in various forms. The autho- bf intellectual imposition. Can, for the capacity to draw out the best in rities of this stage have formed an instance, the simple tale of a younger his actors, or if in this, as in various organisation named Biswaroopa Natya brother in a remote village in Orissa other activities that in the cinema Unnayan Parikalpana Parishad demanding a share in the meagre go to make the end product, his con- which sponsors competitions, festivals, patrimony bear linking up with Hit- trol had been less in evidence. The lectures and symposiums and lets out ler's aggression? The rapidly exe- achievement is all the more credit- the stage every Saturday at a mini- cuted sequences in which the direc-. able because o( the language barrier. mum rental to enable young groups tor employs the idioms of contem- For dialogue, the obvious first to stage their plays. On February 18 porary creative cinema include one hurdle, he has of course been ably Natanatyam, an amateur troupe from where the camera pulls back from a served by Gopal Chotaray who in his Howrah, staged its Sankar under the menacingly advancing Swastika filling translation haE..caught the flavour of auspices of this beautiful organisa- the screen, and the paddy procure- the rural dialect of Cuttack no· less tion. •• ment agent's cdmic face freezing in- faithfully than the actors in the deli- Sankar, a zoIa~sque naturalist play, to a grim likeness of Hitler's. Di.d very of their lines. deals with people who do not know the change in Chakari need so vio- For the other obvious hurdle, mu- where they stand in our maladjusted lent and distant a stimulus? In spite, sic, Mrinal Sen has not perhaps been social pattern. In a bustee, two sets or perhaps because, of its dazzling as fortunate. Which probably ex- of people-the victims of communal- display of technical brilliance, I plains the limited use of folk music ism and the sufferers of economic found this particular bravura passage in the film-a point which one, if he exploitation-live together and find intrusive and therefore discordant. is overtly conscious of the rich store their interests to be common; in the But neither this nor a few other of folk music of the region and means hour of ordeal caused by a riot, these minor blemishes-an inexplicable one to be carping, may make and regret. geographical and social outsiders mis- was the lighting in the night scenes Not that popular folk tunes like the trust each other, kill each other, but in Chakari's room-are of much con- bhajan during Sam Padhan's mono- inevitably, at the end, fight together sequence in the assessment of the logue and th~ tune of the traditional against their common enemy.· The film a, a whole. They do not invali. song of the raja festival phula baula young author, ]agamohon Mazumdar date the 11m's claim to be one of the beni during the montage of the rainy (also the director of the play), dis- few recenL Indian films from which plays evident signs of honesty and season, have not been effectively one gets a feeling of reassurance. passion; he suceeds in creating used. But somehow· they are some· very moving situations. Un- not very evocative and a feeling lin- fortunately, about the middle of the gers that the director - has been ra- Now is available from play; he loses his control over the ther cautious and chary-perhaps a form; too many cinematic flashbacks wise thing to be in the circumstances. Mr S. P. Chatterjee, and 100 much of fictional descriptive- It has not caused, in my opinion, any ness reduce the dramatic tension to Steel Market, great loss to the aesthetic merits of freezing point. Statesman Office, this distinguished film which deserves The production, though tidy and a much wider exhibition than are· inspired, suffers heavily from th'i: Durgapur. gional one. bungling with the light and the mu- MARCH 3, 1967 25 NOW sic: The feeble tunes coming from By doing so it only helped Congress Sir, when the voices of self-interest a 1914-model tape-recorder produce win these seats. This strife be- and abject knavery chose to remain an effect of bathos instead of inten- tween the two factions of the silent on the affairs of Presidency sifying the pathetic moments. The erstwhile CPI has brought into -play College, you carried out the crusade man in charge of the switchboard certa}n ominous forces. Perhaps, the for truth. The Congress is out. What commits greater blunders; the man- Communists do not realise that they about an inquiry into' Presidency ner in which he dims and glares the have now to fight against so many College affairs? spot-lights is entirely out of tune enemies. Or, do they? PRADEEPSEN with the generally realisting temper ABHEEKDASGUPTA Calcutta of the playas well as the production. Calcutta A silent revolution has taken p. ,ce Natanatyam has in Kamal Mukher- Newspapers have suddenly turned jee, Harisankar Banerjee, Prasanto in West Bengal. Congress m. lachrymose over the stabbing of one rule has come to an end. The Mukherjee and Jagamohon Mazum- 21-year-old Congress worker in North dar some actors of considerable power. day on which the defeat of Atulya Calcutta. These papers were not Ghosh and P. C. Sen was de- But they need a little brushing so much worried over the reign of terror that they may be shorn of the rusty clared was a red-letter one in the his- that started right after the successful tory of West Bengal. The widespread remnants of a ranting school of BangIa Bandh last year in Belghoria. acting. jubilation over the victory of oppo- It seems that the newspapers are less sition leaders proved that the Con- concerned with the stupidity of stab- gress leaders were not only unpopular bing than with wrecking the public but also hated. Of course, had it Letters image of what the leftists might be. been a literate State like Kerala, these But there is a limit to mischief-mak- men would have tumbled long ing and the helmsmen of the news- ago. As the Congress leaders failed Tasks Ahead papers need no fresh warning that_ to improve the lot of the common people may not forgive them again- man, the discontented people buried The much-awaited fourth general they have only to remember how the Congress rule. The opposition elections are over and the results their white-collar workers fared dur- rreaders have been 'voted to power, known. Now is the time for the pro- ing the food movement. they should now try heart and soul gressive forces in West Bengal to re- Will the new government look in- to improve the lot of the distressed assess their position vis-a-vis the new to the affairs of Belghoria and size people. Needless to mention, Con- situation that has arisen. The lead- up the police officials for their per- gressmen would now try to create ers of the anti-Congress front Itave de- formance there? . chaos in the State to keep the oppo- cided to run the government which PULAK DE sition leaders on tenterhooks. The is already in a hopeless state as a re- Dum Dum opposition leaders should beware of sult of Congress misrule during the Now that the villains of the Con- this fact. last 18 years. Really, this is going to gress party have been sent about their AMAL BAsu be a feat worth watching. business, I wish to remind our new Calcutta What are the immediate tasks? leaders of the injustic done to some To fix the minimum, the new rulers of the President College students just In 1947 it was an occasion for ju. have to give food to the people at a because they rose in protest against bilation all over India, for the coun- reasonable price, hold the price line a corrupt and inefficient college ad- try had gained freedom from colonial and provide employment. At the ministration. The fury with which rue. After two decades today people same time they have to alert the peo- the college, in collusion with the in West Bengal are delighted because ple against the forces of reaction that Ministry and the party' boss, set out they have gained freedom from Con- have temporarily gone underground. to ruin the students, is known to all. gress misrule. Agents-provocateurs will beat up peo- In spite of repeated demands from It is true that the food and hous- ple'in khadi and hurl bombs at the the public no impartial enquiry was ing problems cannot be solved easily. houses of Congress bosses, of course, held into the gnevances of the stu- But the flew government, if it is with the latters' prior consent. The dents, nor was any attempt made to formed, can abclish the remains of so-called "impartIal" newspapers will hold a thorough departmental probe feudal rule, eliminate corruption, come out with touched-up frontpage into the college affairs. stop malpractices in trading, and photographs of these "orgies and van- The student unrest was only one tackle the problem of maldistribution dalism" in order to discredit the Gov- symptom of the disease which is fast of food. That will bring consider- ernment. Add to this the presence destroying the premier educational able benefit to the people. of ugly American agents in so many institution in West Bengal. / Con- SILA Roy spheres. gress and pro-Congress elements in Bankura Incidentally, the CP (M)'s theory the teaching staff made the college of 'polarisation' and its pre-election surrender its autonomy to the Mi- claim of routing the so-called Dange nistry and the party boss; it is they Next Issue clique in West Bengal have been who promoted suspicion and distrust proved otherwise. The CPI, on the among the teachers themselves. It is other hand, will find that it made un- they who set the police and plain. Tokyo, Kyoto, Kurosawa justified claims on at least ten As- clothesmen on the students and a few sembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat. of the teachers. SATYAJIT RAY

26 MARCH 3, 1967

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