Word: gandhis
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...Prime Minister [Indira] Gandhi has failed to solve or even to offer effective solutions to India's major domestic problems." The Indian leader appears to have "run out of political steam," and displays "elements of paranoia and cynicism" in "seeking to blame internal problems on external interference." Her ten-month-old government has been categorized by "erratic" performance, "pedestrian and superficial" style, and "dismaying indecisiveness and ineffectiveness...
Strong words indeed, especially coming from a diplomat. Those harsh comments on Mrs. Gandhi and her government are from a confidential report by Gordon Upton, Australia's High Commissioner (in effect, Ambassador) in New Delhi, to his Foreign Ministry. Upton's report was leaked to a Canberra journalist and was published by the Melbourne Age, Australia's leading newspaper. The Australian government was deeply embarrassed by the disclosure, which threatened to strain relationships with New Delhi. But the Indian government has so far ignored the incident...
...happens, the High Commissioner's remarks contain large elements of truth. Problems that have plagued Mrs. Gandhi's government since her return to office last January continue to elude solution. One of them is communal tension that has led to a series of bloody battles between Hindus and Muslims. In Moradabad, 95 miles east of New Delhi, 133 people have been killed in these clashes since August...
Then in June came the death of her younger son Sanjay in a plane crash; through much of the summer Mrs. Gandhi appeared absorbed by grief. Rumors persisted that she was ill, that she had lost her will to govern. This month, however, Indira Gandhi was on the move, doing what she does best: taking her case to the people. In a series of appearances in Jammu and Kashmir, one of the states with a non-Congress government, she smoothed over differences with Sheik Abdullah, the aging Lion of Kashmir, and blamed communal tensions on hard-line Muslim and Hindu...
...Gandhi also flew to the southern state of Kerala, where she attributed the current problems to her predecessors. "We have communal riots, high prices, unemployment left over from the wrong policies of the Janata and Lok Dal governments," she told listeners, who bedecked her with flower garlands. "We cannot allow antisocial elements, smugglers, hoarders, profiteers to gain the upper hand as happened under Janata...