Nehru and Hungary's Revolt
NARAYAN, JAYAPRAKASH
Leader of Indian Socialists accuses Prime Minister of moral 'double standard' NEHRU AND HUNGARY'S REVOLT By Jayaprakash Narayan It is my lot again to raise my voice against our distinguished...
...Russia has no right to be in Hungary...
...A report from New Delhi explained that instructions had not reached our permanent representative in time...
...In Hungary this is exactly what happened...
...Even after that, if any doubts had persisted, they should have been removed by the happenings in Poland and Hungary...
...promised free elections as soon as possible...
...Nehru gave in Calcutta of the course of Hungarian events does not square with the facts as reported in the Indian press, which happens to be the only source of my information...
...Nobody would think of asking Eden to give us information about Egypt, but that is the kind of thing we seem to be doing in the case of Hungary...
...It was a futile gesture because it was too late...
...The sooner we renounce the double standard, the better for India's honor, the peace of the world and good will among nations...
...Nehru did not break his silence till November 5. It took him two weeks to make up his mind about an event the significance of which should have been clear to any person acquainted even slightly with the situation in Eastern Europe...
...Anthony Eden also talks of treaties with Egypt...
...As the process of de-Stalinization went on, Communists the world over gathered courage and began to assert their independence of Moscow...
...JAY APR AKASH NARAYAN, leader of India's Praja Socialist party and Honorary President of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, issued this declaration recently in New Delhi...
...This is too sad for words...
...But for many days there was not even a whisper heard from New Delhi about Hungary...
...we can easily identify the first having seen its features from close quarters...
...To Egypt, Mr...
...Nehru's chief adviser on foreign policy, V. K. Krishna Menon, as having stated that the Hungarian question was a domestic affair of the Hungarian people...
...Imre Nagy, impelled almost hourly by the rising tide of the popular revolution, renounced the Communist monopoly of power and formed a national-front government...
...The Russian Army swooped down and set the seal of doom upon that unfortunate country...
...Nehru's reaction was immediate and firm and righteous...
...Our country spends a tremendous amount on its foreign service...
...As an Indian, I hang my head in shame that a spokesman of my country should have gone so far in cynical disregard of the truth and the fundamental principles of freedom and peace that are said to guide our international conduct...
...Nehru's astonishing speech at Calcutta...
...What happened in Hungary is not at all difficult to understand...
...The world has witnessed in recent days two examples of the most cynical assault on human freedom, one in Egypt and the other in Hungary...
...It was an astounding statement that left me aghast...
...Finally came the crowning piece of this shameful story, namely India's opposition to the second resolution on Hungary and Mr...
...Then came the anti-climax...
...But Mr...
...What is a treaty worth which is imposed by force by a mighty power upon a weak and prostrate country...
...Leader of Indian Socialists accuses Prime Minister of moral 'double standard' NEHRU AND HUNGARY'S REVOLT By Jayaprakash Narayan It is my lot again to raise my voice against our distinguished Prime Minister...
...Nehru's belated gesture was a heartening token of the fact that India's conscience was not dead and Mr...
...Prime Minister Imre Nagy was arrested and, in true Stalinist fashion, a stooge was put in his place to carry out the bidding of the invaders...
...The account that Mr...
...On the 24th, Imre Nagy was carried to power on the rising crest of revolution...
...proclaimed the neutrality of Hungary ; asked the UN to order the Russians to quit and to honor the newly-proclaimed neutrality...
...That would be a domestic affair...
...Krishna Menon subsequently contradicted that report and revealed that the abstention was deliberate...
...Then, one fine morning, the papers reported Mr...
...Nevertheless, Mr...
...I wonder if this service has proved to be of any use to us as a source of vital information...
...Nehru and Mr...
...Stalin's stooges fell in disgrace and his victims began to be rehabilitated...
...In his recital of Hungarian events...
...Menon's speech of November 9. A more perverse and false view of the situation could have hardly been imagined...
...When the first resolution on Hungary was adopted by the UN, India, surprisingly enough, had abstained...
...The Hungarian struggle for freedom had started on October 23 with huge demonstrations of thousands of students...
...To talk of a treaty in this context is to make a mockery of freedom...
...Menon's was not the authentic voice of this country...
...Evidently Mr...
...If this was not clear before, Khrushchev's recital of Stalin's crimes should have removed all doubts...
...The trend of our foreign policy in the past few days has seriously disturbed me...
...But there was a limit beyond which Moscow was not prepared to let this assertion of national freedom go...
...Nehru spoke of the stronger wing of the Imre Nagy Government having asked for Russian help to suppress disorder...
...There are today two imperialistic systems in being: One is the old system of colonial imperialism...
...This "stronger wing" story has apparently been invented by the Russians to justify their invasion of Hungary and crushing of the people's revolution...
...The Eastern European nations have often been described by Mr...
...All reports have agreed that Nagy had the overwhelming support of his people...
...It was at that last stage, the last act of the Hungarian tragedy, that Mr...
...But when a big power by armed intervention tries to impose in another country its own puppets in power, it no longer remains a domestic question but becomes an international issue of the highest importance...
...To apply one set of rules to Egypt and another to Hungary is to make use of a double standard which, to say the least, is unworthy of this country...
...This declaration of complete independence could not be tolerated by the Russian overlords and, encouraged perhaps by the example of Anglo-French aggression in Egypt and taking advantage of the fact that the world's attention was diverted elsewhere, they decided to strike at Hungary...
...Nehru had second or rather third thoughts and revised the opinion expressed earlier at the UNESCO Conference...
...No one can question the right of the Hungarian or any other people, including the Indian people, to choose a Communist form of government if they so desire...
...Bulganin...
...Moscow, after its own drastic exposure of Stalin's tyranny, could not check this process—even though it tried to do so as in Poland, where Khrushchev himself had tried personally to intervene...
...Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution seemed to be rolling forward from success to success till it seemed to have reached its final goal of victory...
...But the other seems to deceive some people...
...Nehru, of course, had other sources, such as Mr...
...Menon as sovereign states, while it has been clear to everyone who tried to find out the facts that they were nothing but Russian satellites ruled by Russian stooges...
...But the UNESCO speech seems to have been the product of a passing mood, for our other actions have given it the lie...
...Then came Mr...
...repudiated the hated Warsaw treaty...
...Nehru spoke out at the UNESCO Conference...
Vol. 39 • November 1956 • No. 51
