MOSCOW
By Kailas Chandra
Bombay
Coming in the wake of the cancellation of his projected trip to the United States, Prime Minister Shastri's eight-day visit to the USSR has been acclaimed as highly "successful." Premier Kosygin paid him the unique honour of accompanying him | personally from the Soviet capital to Leningrad.
In a joint communiqué the two prime ministers took a common view on many subjects.
They expressed "great concern" over the Vietnam situation and demanded an immediate halt to the bombing of north Vietnam,
Among other things they called for the disbanding of military bases in foreign countries. This is of significance in the context of reports about U.S. moves to set up military bases in the “uninhabited islands" of the Indian Ocean.
The Indian prime minister no doubt sought the support of his Soviet hosts on Indiats border dispute with China and the new one with Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch, While the joint communiqué was silent on both topics, Shastri made it clear on his return to New Delhi that these questions were discussed in Moscow and that he had been assured of Soviet "sympathy and support in matters which directly concern us."
There has been considerable speculation in the Indian press whether the Shastri trip marks the beginning of a new shift in the foreign policy of the Indian government. Since the border war with China in 1962, New Delhi has more and more identified itself with the imperialist powers in return for military and economic aid. Even the pro-government press admits that India has been taken for granted by
Washington of late. The rude refusal of President Johnson to receive Shastri in June therefore came as a big.shock to the policy-makers in New Delhi,
India is now seeking substantial aid from the Soviet Union, especially in the field of heavy industry (iron and steel, nonferrous metals, oil and power), during the Fourth Plan period. The Soviet government has responded with assurances of substantial aid, Imperialist countries have been reluctant to help the Indian bourgeoisie in the field of heavy industry.
The new border conflict with Pakistan, which started with the clashes in the Rann of Kutch, have assumed serious proportions. New Delhi has made capital out of the American weapons used by the Pakistani forces. The bourgeois regimes of both India and Pakistan are cleverly utilising the conflict to create chauvinistic hysteria in their respective countries to divert the attention of the people from their immediate economic and political problems. In some parts of India, communal and reactionary organisations have already fomented Hindu-Muslim riots,
Developments in India have crucial significance in the present world situation, The American imperialists know this. So does the Soviet bureaucracy. This explains the attention being paid to India by both Washington and Moscow. The Indian bourgeoisie on the other hand is prepared to pay any price to avert a revolutionary crisis within the country.
Open support of American imperialism would be very dangerous for the bourgeois leadership in India in the context of widespread. protests-against the rapacious intervention of Washington in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic. The Shastri government requires an attractive cover and is trying to achieve this with the help of the Soviet bureaucracy.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, seeks an understanding with the Indian bourgeoisie as a diplomatic foil against Washington. In the process, of course, it will sacrifice the revolutionary struggles of the Indian masses in accordance with its policy of maintaining the status quo,
Shastri will use the prestige accruing from his Soviet visit to refurbish the image of his regime as truly nonaligned, strengthening the Indian hand in the forthcoming Afro~Asian conference in Algiers, The visit has also helped him to sidestep a serious threat to his own leadership in the ruling Congress party.
So far as the internal situation in India is concerned, the repressive policies of the government are not likely to be relaxed. The leaders of the pro-Peking Communist party are still in prison. The Kashmir leader, Sheikh Abdullah, who has just returned from a
world tour, has been interned because he sought a private interview with Chou En-lai in Algiers. The civil liberties of the people are being crushed in the name of the new "emergency" created by the Indo~ Pak border confrontation, All strikes and mass demonstrations have been virtually banned. The pro-Moscow Communist party and the petty~ bourgeois Socialist parties are contributing further to whipping up the chauvinistic atmosphere in the country in the name of fighting Pakistani "aggression," mo