PRICE 30 PAISE e ".President's Address • Save Us From U.S. E~ ts "Maoists" In Jf'riters Bui~lding • Unh!lppr ~iz(J e PKI' Experiment In Indonesia . The I)icide y Calcutta Diary: Congress And Muslim THE·NEW UNPOLICY Vol.3: No. 25:: March 24, 1967 ARDLY anybody had hoped that. the new Congress Government at On Other Pages H the Centre would have a clearer sense of purpose or greater courage and ability to face the natiQn's tasks than shown by any of its predeces- COMMENTS 4 sors. But we did not quite expect its first statement of policy to be so melancholy a: mixture of evasion, platit.ude and false promise as was THE ASSAM CABINET contained in the President's address to the new Parliament. The Presi- By A CORRESPONDENT 6 de,nt was not quite accurate when he said that State Governments with CALCUTTA DIARY political complexions different from that of the Centre had been formed J. MOHAN 8 for the first time; perhaps the first Communist Government in Kerala DELHI LETTER is better forgotten. The Union Government, he said, would not discri-' HER MAJESTY'S OPPOSITION minate against them, nor show any disrespect for the constitutional FROM A POLITICAL provisions. But surely it is not time yet to forget Rajasthan. Dr Radha- CORRESPONDENT 9 krishnan himself expressed dist.ress over what had been done in that "FAIR" ELECTIONS IN State. The alternative to the Congress there has such influential sup- KASHMIR porters in New Delhi and elsewhere that President's rule may well be By A SPECIAL CORRES- PONDENT II revoked soon; it is doubtful if violation of constitutional propriety in States like Kerala or West Bengal would be as vehemently opposed by THE "HERO" OF MAHA- the upholders of parliamentary democracy. RASHTRA D. G. SATARKAR 12 The new Government, the President announced, had res'olved to do all that was possible t.o check the rise in prices, which he attributed to a CHINA AND OUR shortfall in agricultural and industrial production. The erratic monsoon MANDARINS MONITOR 13 was predictably the villain of the piece, although shortage of foreign exchange was also mentioned. It is remarkable that. not a word was said THE PRESS about the effects of devaluation, which had been advertised as the supreme PRESIDENT'S RULE IN RAJASTHAN 18 solution of the country's economic iUs. The stark outcome of the SLOGANS economic policies pursued by New Delhi in recent. years is there for all NIRMAL KUMAR SEN 20 to see in the interim Budget estimates; yet Mrs Gandhi's new Cabinet A LYRICAL PAINTER had no sense of shame in asking th~ President to announce that it would By AN ART CRITIC 21 ensure such progress that there would be no need for foreign economic assistance after 1976 or· for food aid after 1971. Will Mr Johnson be LETTERS 21 pleased? A regime which has made itself entirely dependent on foreign help and abjectly subservient to dictates from abroad still tries to deceive EDITOR: SAMAR SEN. PRINTED BY the resentful public by talking of achieving self-sufficiency in five or ten IUM AT MODERN INDIA PRESS, years; its hypocrisy really knows no bounds. 7 RAJA SUBODH MULLICK SQUARE, CALCUTTA.13AND PUBLISHED BY HIM That the Government itself knows such promises to be t.otally mean- FORNATION TRUST FROM 54 GANESH ingles,Swill be clear from the fact that there is not the slightest indication CHUNDEIl AVENUE, CALCUTTA-13. TELEPHONE: 24-5713. of exactly how i~ proposes to fulfil them. All the cliches about tackling the food problem on an emergency basis and improving irrigation, credit Subscri ption (INLAND) and fertilizer supply have been uttered, although, significantly, such Yearly Rs. 15.00 unpleasant subjects as land reforms are no longer even mentioned. The Half- Yearly ,. Rs. 7.50 Fourth Flan, we are told, is sljill being reviewed in the light. of the effects FOREIGN MAIL RATES of drought, rising prices and prospects of additional internal and-here By Air Mail comes the crux-external' resources. But the Government, we have been Europe Rs. 104 or 13 dollars simultaneously assured, will eliminate the need for all foreign assistance. Asia Rs. 72 or 9 dollars It will probably soon embark upon a heroic international campaign America Rs. 152 or 19 dollars begging for aid to end all aid. In the meantime, there was a clear enough hint in the President's address that not. much. further industrial invest- By Surface Mail ment in the publiC sector was envisaged; on the' plea of consolidating the. All countries: Rs. 32 or 4 dollars NOW existing public sector enterprises and care to pronounce on the whole sub- questions' almost as soon as they true in improving their efficiency, the private ject again, in precise and unequivo- arrive. It is a sad thought that, from try and sector-increasingly controlled by cal terms? now on, we will be hard put to sorl a grea foreign money-will probably be al- out pure knowledge-seeking enquiries among lowed to expand and even enter into How Many U.S. Experts? from evil-motived CIA-type prying~ . wake 0 fields hitherto reserved for State own- The Americans, at least a large ma- United ership and management. Private en- ,According to a recent count, near- jority of them, are born do-gooders: all lev trepreneurs must also have been de- ly 350 American "experts" ar~ ad- from now on, we will hardly know share f lighted to learn that "unnecessary" vising the Union Ministry of Food how to distinguish a lover of other gal. F controls will be removed; no doubt and Agriculture. There is almost the peoples and other lands from I the ex they, or perhaps the U.S. State De- same number in t!he Ministry of sneaky coloniser. a hom partment, will be the best judge of Health and Planning. Give and take We can commisserate with the goo~ what is unnecessary. a few scores, in each of the other well-intentioned Americans. We agtte When such is the direction of the Ministries too, the Americans are in- that it is all a great pity. But at the Government's unpolicy at home, it stalled in near-equal proportions. same' time, we cannot simply affo The is not surprising that the President's Since about anything is now possible to be polite at this stage.. Alre~dJ In th address contained little of substance under Mrs Gandhi's regime, it could there has been too much of erOSIOB Congr about foreign affairs, certainly noth- 'well be that a f<1'WAmerican "ex- of our national sovereignty. The best, ing that might displease its powerful perts" are tucked away insi~e even Union Government's alacrity in misd patrons abroad. The platitudes about the Ministry of External AffaIrs: we steadily bartering away our preroga- on t non-alignment, peaceful co-existence will know only when we are able to tives for independent decision-mal shout and friendly relations were prefaced find out. ing has already done enough harm men by the proud declaration that "the Here in Calcutta, the Calcutta Those who can must now try to relief foreign policy of India has stood Metropolitan Planning Organisation the process. In recent years, the who the test of time", which may come bristles with Americans. The Insti· has been too much of imposition leade to be regarded as one of the most tute of Public Administration, New American mores on our system furth remarkable pronouncements in his- York-which is directly subsidised by education, on our administration, well tory. If it had been made by a per- the Central Intelligence Agency-has our system of industrial managemen of t son less re1ipected than Dr Radha- a branch office somewhere south of on the framing of our agricultu dow krishnan it could have provided a Park Street, and is supposed to pro- policy. There is an excess of se The great deal of immediate entertain- vide "advice" to the CMPO. Every lity in the air, a servility which is ment; coming from him, it only made day, there are more and more of the more sickening because it is us sad. But let that pass. If was them: management consultants, con- irrational. For, let there be no flin pleasing to l~arn that the Govern· traceptive experts, seismography spe- ing of words here, by and large m ment would seek understanding, good. cialists, bridge engineers, marine tech- of the American "experts" who ha will and amity with Pakistan, but nicians, psychologists, cardiologists, been swarming this country are this declaration of intent carried professors of economics, political of-the-mill specimens, they will set little conviction in the context of pre- scientists, international relations ex- river on fire. vious performance which, too, had perts, lovers of oriental arts, cultural It is no xenophobia when we been accompanied by periodic ex- anthropologists, ballet teachers, coach- , that the Americans are not inf pressions of such pious resolve. In es in dramatics, food technologists, ble, or that their value system n siti fact, the friendly references to Pakis-· rodent specialists, hybrid seed breed- not be altogether to the good of as tan might have been meant primarily ers, pisciculturists, plain sports buffs. country. It is again no manif to satisfy Washington and possibly The hotel rooms stay overcrowded, tion of xenophobia when we s Moscow, both of which came in for house rents rocket to the sky, domes- that the free import of Ameri honourable mention in the Presi- tic help grows scarcer with every day, wheat has done more harm to dent's address.