India: Red Upset

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In the volatile southern state of Kerala, the ruling Congress Party of mild-mannered Prime Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri last week faced its first electoral test since he took office last June. The party had reason to fear the result since India has for months been racked by a succession of woes, ranging from food shortages and floods to corruption and the bloody riots occasioned by the attempt to impose Hindi as the national language.

Kerala was an especially difficult testing ground. The Malayalam-speaking inhabitants had attacked post offices and disrupted rail services over the Hindi question. Though the most Christian state in India and the one with the highest literacy rate, Kerala is desperately poor and has a radical tradition. Back in 1957 the Communists captured the state government, ruling for 27 chaotic months until removed from of fice by a presidential decree.

As the ballots were counted last week, the fears proved justified. With 133 seats at stake, the pro-Peking Communists captured 58 to the Congress Party's 36. A dissident group called the Kerala Congress Party came third with 25, while the pro-Moscow Communists were badly beaten, taking only three of the 78 seats they contested.

As the results came in, Shastri summoned a midnight Cabinet meeting and it seemed likely that the pro-Peking Communists would be denied their electoral victory. As it is, 25 of their winning candidates are already in jail, having been imprisoned without trial since last December under an emergency decree issued at the time of Red China's invasion of India's Himalayan border. Shastri may again arrange for an appointed governor to rule Kerala. If he does, Kerala's Red boss, E.M.S. Nam-boodiripad, has said he will set off statewide demonstrations against the government.