Calcutta Diary

An overt bias in favour of private industrial enterprise and the United States in official Indian policy might not unduly perturb the Soviet Union so long as Indira Gandhi is willing, in case the need arises, to open a second front against China. Even if the consequence is political dirigisme in India, a stagnation in economic growth and an accentuation of income inequalities, the Soviet Union might consider the price well worth paying. And once the Soviet Union so decides, the CPI, given the present structure of its organisation and leadership, would have no alternative but to fall in line. While the parties belonging to the Right could he increasingly converging toward the Prime Minister's line of action and thinking, and while the pattern of income distribution could continue to shift in favour of the rich and against the very poor, the Left could nonethe less remain in disarray. The Marxists, along with some stragglers from the SSP and the Socialist Party, might keep up the attack; they are likely to find themselves overwhelmed and outflanked.