What Then Must We Do

What Then Must We Do ?
WE are getting a clearer picture of Soviet arms aid to Pakistan and its impact on this country. Some of the facts have been disclosed by Dilip Mukerjee in Statesman. It was evidently someone in the cabinet who on Sunday, July 7, leaked out the story that government was "concerned" about Soviet arms aid to Pakistan. Obviously government was not sure what stance to take. Should the press be quietly encouraged to cry havoc or should the affair be allowed to simmer down? Morarji Desai, according to Statesman, pleaded for restraint as did Swaran Singh; but others disagreed. Officially, government maintained a discreet silence between the evening of July 7 and the morning of July 9; only on July 9 did Indira Gandhi make an effort to soothe the popular outburst. But it was plainly a half-hearted effort; her advisers, Dilip Mukerjee suggested, perhaps felt that "a popular outburst would be no bad thing".