Warning Signals in Indo-Soviet Ties

A Correspondent writes:
THE SOVIET PREMIER has refused to help the present leadership of the Congress Government win the February elections. To what extent the postponement of his State visit to India by three months has embarrassed the Government is indicated by the hurried summons to our envoy in Moscow to come to Delhi for consultations. Kewal Singh is understood to have told the Government that while the postponement of the visit was not quite expected, there was no reason to draw too gloomy conclusions from it. This was also the line taken by the Soviet Ambassador when he politely broke the news of the postponement to the Prime Minister in mid-November. As if to arrest the onset of too much melancholy, he has signed agreements under which the Soviet Union will supply equipment for one state seed farm in every State. But the inauguration of the Bokaro steel plant must now wait till after the elections. This is not an unmixed evil, because although the two points of controversy with the Soviet Union, the costs of the plant and the share of Indian consultancy, have been resolved, the Ministry concerned is not yet ready with all the relevant details of the plant, nor has work made much headway at the site in Bihar.