Articles by Nireekshak

Prophets Armed SPECIAL correspondents are a breed apart; in the rarefied atmosphere of New Delhi, where they brush shoulders with the high and mighty, they often affect the air of Oracles or seek to change with their pens history itself. They are neither commentators, nor reporters proper; lacking the former's depth and the latter

November 29, 1969 stepped in and bombed Fedayeen shelters at Kfra Tella, In spite of Israeli collaboration, the Lebanese forces then attacked refugee camps in northern Lebanon. The attacks on the Fedayeen camps in the south were explicable from the Lebanese point of view. These were points from which Fedayeen attacked Israeli targets. But the confrontation at camps in northern Lebanon was inexplicable. They were too far away from Israeli positions and it appeared that Boustany was really opening a new front in an attempt to draw off the Fedayeen from the major theatre of events, i e, south Lebanon.

Short on Facts Nireekshak INTERSPERSED with reports of the Gandhi Centenary celebrations, postmortem accounts of the Ahmedabad riots made grim reading in the newspapers last week. In a two-part article "Communalism in Perspective", written after a visit to Ahmedabad, Nandan Kagal of Indian Express put much of the blame on the massive procession taken out by Muslims to protest against the burning of the Al Aqsa mosque. He absolved Balraj Madhok, the Jan Sangh leader, of the charge that his speeches in Ahmedabad and other places in Gujarat just a few days before the riots broke out had roused anti-Muslim feeling. Kagal blamed the hypersensi- tiveness of Muslims as a major cause of communal tension. In Ahmedabad, as in most communal riots in the past all over the country, it was, he pointed out, the Muslims who had been responsible for the first provocative act. Kagal had a warning for Muslims: "India is a predominantly Hindu country which has chosen to be a secular State. The element of choice needs to be emphasised . . . The pity is that far too many of India's Muslims do not realise this." Other commentators were less inclined to absolve the Hindus and the Jan Sangh of a part of the responsibility. Writing in Hindustan Times, Ajit Bhattacharjea prominently mentioned among the factors contributing to the violence the fact that "two days before the temple incident, Mr Balraj Madhok, the Jan Sangh leader, was warning Ahmedabad citizens of an 'inevitable' Pakistani attack on Gujarat while casting doubt on the loyalty of Muslim leaders". Bhattacharjea also pointed out that "the first cases of arson after the Jagannath temple incident occurred after some time in a locality some distance away in which the Jan Sangh and RSS organisation is particularly strong".

August 16, 1969 be larger for those industries which are large consumers of foreign exchange, rather than for those which have a large net export (that is, export value less import content) potential. The Study Group also recommends reduction of actual user licences and freer transferability of import certificates.

Faint Echoes Nireekshak FLEETING echoes of the golden age of Indian diplomacy were heard more than once in the past fortnight. "Kaul to Visit Hanoi to Pave Way for Substantive Talks in Paris on Vietnam" said a three-column, three-line heading on the front page of Hindu on the 14th. According to its Delhi correspondent, G K Reddy, Foreign Secretary T N Kaul had been invited by North Vietnam to explore how best India could help "in finding an equitable basis for substantive discussions at the Paris peace talks for an early settlement of the Vietnam conflict'', further, the report informed readers, "though India is not directly involved in the Paris peace talks, it has nevertheless been playing a helpful role behind the scenes in bridging the gulf between the American and the North Vietnamese positions on some of the more fundamental preliminaries to the actual negotiations". Reddy buttressed this impressive claim on behalf of the External Atfairs Ministry with references to the Indian Consul-General in Hanoi functioning as a "channel for communication of private clarifications between the two sides pat Paris]'*, to "recent diplomatic exchanges" between India and North Vietnam, to the US Secretary of State's anxiety, expressed during his recent visit to New Delhi, that India should use its good offices to communicate to Hanoi certain clarifications of President Nixon's eight-point plan and, finally, to Indira Gandhi's discussions with Kosygin when he came to India for Zakir Husain's funeral.