Nehru v. Communists

From a lofty, flower-decked platform in New Delhi last week, India's Jawaharlal Nehru handed down a contemptuous rebuke to his own country's Communists. "Anti-India, antipeople, anti-progress," he called them, "dazzled by Russia and China, but ignorant of India. They are without moorings in the land of their birth. They are pledged to a policy of creating mental and physical conflicts. They indulge in a cult of disruption."

Nehru added: "When I visited China, I refused to be swept off my feet . . . Our achievements are as great and our methods are much better." Neutralist Nehru was stepping back into his lesser-known role of Indian anti-Communist for the upcoming Andhra state elections. He was also reacting to the evidence that India's Communists are gaining.

Since 1952, in state elections, the Communists have stepped up their percentage of the popular vote from 8.5% to 13.5%; in Madras they have grown from 5.4% to 22% and in the Punjab from 7% to 16.7%. India's Communists, with only 60,000 card-carrying members, hold 26 seats in the New Delhi Parliament, have gained effective control of 800,000 trade unionists; they can paralyze India's biggest city, Calcutta, at will. In impoverished India the Communists also have excellent future prospects: the nation's urban unemployment is increasing by 500,000 a year; 15 million families are unable to make a decent living upon India's arid land. India's current rate of industrial investment is considered more than 85% behind India's grievous need.

Before his visit to Peking, Nehru often spoke glowingly of "absolute" Socialism as the answer to India's problems; he now refers to Red planners as "unrealistic reactionaries." Last week, still talking Socialism but less emphatically, Nehru announced that India would not now nationalize such private enterprises as the jute and textile industries, that India would welcome capitalists as "junior partners" in future state-run projects.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.