INDIA: Three Forward, Two Back

As he rose wearily from his teakwood parliamentary bench one morning last week, India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru found himself in an unusual and unpleasant position. For the first time in years, the relative handful of Indian M.P.s who oppose Nehru were in a position to attack him where he prides himself most: in his role of high-minded overseer of other nations' misdeeds.

All over India, intellectual leaders were criticizing Nehru for hurling thunderous denunciations at Britain and France for their invasion of Egypt while expressing only mild concern over Soviet Russia's ruthless repression in Hungary. In a letter to...