"Nehru, Teacher of Nations"
MEYER, PETER
By Peter Meyer NEHRU Teacher of Nations India's Premier delivers fine lectures on morality, but often disregards the principles he proclaims No living statesman makes greater pretensions to being...
...But, at the same time, certain European countries have fallen under a foreign yoke which is far worse than that imposed on India by the British...
...The British also brought industry and health services to India, and the French did the same thing in North Africa, but every Indian will tell you that this does not excuse the evils of colonial rule...
...The policy of neutrality between the Soviet bloc and the free world is no mere opportunistic middle-ground position...
...Looking at the record, we see that Nehru is against American...
...These are excellent principles--but let us look at the record...
...Not, of course, that Nehru is guilty of racial prejudice...
...The Soviet Empire also has colonies inhabited by non-white peoples...
...And what about the legitimate rights of the Korean Government to the northern part of the country and of Germany to the Soviet-occupied zone...
...so that even if every man and woman in the South voted against Communism, South Vietnam would still be delivered to Ho Chi Minh...
...Indeed, Nehru himself is reported to have expressed some doubts about the propriety of their behavior to Government ministers and foreign diplomats...
...This was certainly a just solution...
...Nehru knows better than the local inhabitants not only what is good for Goa and Kashmir but also what is good for Formosa and Vietnam...
...Why should they have anything to say when the great defenders of self-determination, Messrs...
...Whatever the Indians' feelings in these matters, the United States must respect their decisions...
...international cooperation and respect for the authority of the UN...
...Not at all...
...the population and not the ruler had to decide...
...In Kashmir, however, the situation was reversed...
...The Indian Government certainly has a good case in Goa...
...Now anyone who dares to support Pakistan in its demand for an honest plebiscite under neutral supervision is branded an imperialist...
...By Peter Meyer NEHRU Teacher of Nations India's Premier delivers fine lectures on morality, but often disregards the principles he proclaims No living statesman makes greater pretensions to being not only a leader of his country but also a moral authority, a preceptor of correct international behavior, than does Jawaharlal Nehru...
...In this respect, he is truly impartial...
...Who decided this...
...and he is against military intervention provided it is not his own in Kashmir or Mao's in Tibet...
...Nobody, of course, could object to deciding the future of Vietnam through free elections in both North and South...
...Now Nehru joins Bulganin and Khrushchev in an appeal "to remove obstacles now standing in the way of effective implementation of the Geneva agreements and to cooperate fully in carrying out in letter and in spirit the provisions of these agreements...
...Poles, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Rumanians and Albanians...
...The prince was ousted and the state joined India...
...hero that he is, he dared not speak up publicly to his own people...
...The prince decided to join India, and Indian troops occupied the area...
...When the subcontinent was divided between India and Pakistan and the princely states were to decide which country to join, there was a Mohammedan ruler in Hyderabad, a state with a predominantly Hindu population...
...In his common declaration with Khrushchev and Bulganin, we read that "the legitimate rights of the Chinese Peopie's Republic in regard to the coastal islands and Formosa should be satisfied...
...In Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirghizia and Kazakhstan, peoples of Turkish, Persian and Mongolian origin are subject to a regime which Robert F. Kennedy, who recently visited these regions together with Justice William 0. Douglas, describes as one of "broken promises, failure to grant local autonomy, torture and murder...
...he is for self-determination so long as nobody wants to use it to escape from Communist tyranny...
...Yet, this the great democrat Nehru cannot support...
...This great moral principle seems to apply within India, too...
...In Vietnam, the 1054 Geneva Conference decided, there should be a plebiscite...
...But let us not be unjust...
...Was this the price that must be paid for industrialization and modernization...
...In the Twenties and Thirties, the Kazakhs alone lost a third of their number through the systematic elimination of those who wished to maintain their ancient ways...
...When the pro-Indian Kashmiri Government modestly asked for limited autonomy within India, it was overthrown with the help of local Communists in a coup engineered in New Delhi...
...Only a great teacher of nations like Nehru knows that what's sauce for the goose here is not sauce for the gander...
...The more populous North, now under Communist rule, could be relied on to produce a 99.9-per-cent pro-Communist majority...
...So long as they approve of Nehru's policies, he will remain the leader of his country...
...In the meantime, South Vietnam has freed itself from French colonialism and its puppet Bao Dai, and the South Vietnam Government refuses to be bound by a treaty it did not sign which delivers the country to Communist domination...
...There is no mention of asking the Chinese on Formosa whether they want to be delivered to slavery and mass extermination...
...Nehru, we are told by him and his admirers, decides every international question on its merits and according to definite principles...
...Nehru recently visited Moscow, Prague and Warsaw, and fraternized with the rulers of the Soviet Empire and their local viceroys...
...The fact that the colony has for 400 years belonged to Portugal is not a valid argument for the continuation of colonial rule...
...But wouldn't it be a good idea for the United Nations to recommend that the plebiscite in Goa take place on the same day and under the same conditions as the vote in Kashmir...
...Some of them seem to question the wisdom of making the country a sounding board for Khrushchev's and Bulganin's provocative speeches, which helped the Indian Communists more than ten years of their own propaganda...
...Whether this policy is good for India, the Indians themselves must decide...
...The prince was Hindu, the population Islamic...
...But to force free South Vietnam to accept the verdict of a totalitarian election comedy in the North, simply because French Premier Mendes-France accepted the Communist terms under the pressure of defeat at Dienbienphu, is a travesty of democracy and morality...
...Now India has achieved her independence...
...That, of course, is quite another matter...
...Didn't that great democrat Mr...
...These are: peaceful solution of all international problems...
...Yet, do Nehru, his party or the leaders of the Indian intelligentsia ever raise their voices for the liberation and self-determination of the Baltic nations, or of the Czechs...
...The French and Red Chinese, with the assistance of the Russian and--to its shame--the British Government...
...Liberal movements, labor organizations, and intellectuals in Europe and America always sympathized with and supported India's fight for freedom...
...India accepted the decision, but its government has been sabotaging the plebiscite for seven years...
...The United Nations thereupon decided that a local plebiscite should decide the future of Kashmir...
...he is for respecting the decisions of the United Nations and international treaties wherever they favor him or his Soviet friends...
...Nehru, Bulganin and Khrushchev, have already decided what the "legitimate rights" are...
...The Kalmucks of the North Caucasus, who are said to be of pure Mongolian stock, were practically exterminated by mass deportations...
...South Korea and West Germany do not even demand that the claimed territories be simply handed over, as Mao and Nehru do in the case of Formosa...
...North Korea or Formosa, but there is one point on the map where he would not object to a vote...
...True, Nehru does not support free elections in East Germany...
...But when he aspires to be a great moral teacher and one of the leaders of mankind, let us exercise the privilege of free citizens to tell him that his moral credit is rapidly approaching zero...
...Khrushchev recently testify on the spot that the Kashmiri have already decided the question and that there is no need for a popular vote...
...The Crimean Tatars were liquidated as an autonomous ethnic group...
...freedom from foreign rule and complete self-determination for all nations...
...The population itself should decide, free from the pressure of foreign troops and under impartial international supervision...
...This man who preaches liberty and equality for all races and nations seems to have no understanding for the plight of these European colonial slaves, so many of whom are daily sent to forced-labor camps for demanding their nations' freedom...
...British, French, Portuguese and Dutch colonialism, but has no objections to the Soviet and Red Chinese variety...
...they want the issue settled by free elections...
Vol. 39 • January 1956 • No. 5
