India: Advice from a Family Friend

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When Indira Gandhi took office as Prime Minister last January, many Indian politicians feared that she might become a mouthpiece for the left-wing policies of onetime Defense Minister and longtime family friend, Vengalil Krishna Menon. In fact, Indira had al ready quietly disowned him. Last week, in the first political attack mounted against Mrs. Gandhi personally, Menon betrayed his anger in a scathing 25-minute parliamentary harangue that showed off all his celebrated talents for sarcasm, snarl and serpentine innuendo.

Menon began by paying apparent tribute to Indira's "great personal success" on her recent trip to the U.S.

"However," he went on, with an icy smile, "personal success is not the same as policy." Mrs. Gandhi, said Menon, had discussed India's economic problems with the U.S., and this amounted to clear evidence, in Menon's eyes, that India was falling under U.S. domination. "The day of imperialism is not yet over,'' he warned in a mad melange of metaphor. 'The empire comes in by the back door, the front door and the side door. We may worship at the shrine of nonalignment, but if we throw away the content by letting the man who pays the piper call the tune, then there will be no nonalignment. So far as the U.S. is concerned, you do not get any more money by sucking up. If you want aid, don't beg them. Kick them."

In Parliament, Menon's speech was applauded by some members of the Congress Party's left wing and, of course, by the Communists. Indira was not present during the attack, though she heard it in her office on the parliamentary closed-circuit radio. She did not deign to reply to Menon directly: perhaps she felt that her speech to the nation on All India Radio earlier in the week had already answered her critics. "This government," she said, "is fully committed to the objectives of a socialist and democratic society. But our socialism is one that is related to the reality of the Indian situation. It is not wedded to any dogma. What we all want is a better life, with more food, employment and opportunities. Let us not become prisoners of words."