INDIA: Private Enterpriser

For a discouraging 2½ years, handsome Tiruvallur Thattaf Krishnamachari, Madras businessman, spoke up for private enterprise in India. As Nehru’s able Minister for Commerce and Industry, Krishnamachari believed that “the private sector” could make a sizable contribution, even to Socialist-minded India. Last fall, when the government decided that India needed more steel mills, Krishnamachari proposed to give a contract to India’s wealthy G. Birla interests. Pandit Nehru said no.

Nehru’s government decided instead to let Russia put up the steel mill. Russia, keen to show the Indians that it can match the Westerners in industrial know-how, offered to put up a $95 million mill in four years. Commerce Minister Krishnamachari objected that the Russian plant would give the Communists a foothold inside central India, permitting them to intrigue among Indians, to make sure that Indian Communists were made foremen, and to channel funds into the Indian Communist Party.

To these arguments. Nehru replied that since India is also going to buy a smaller steel mill from West Germany’s Krupp combine, no “politics” could be involved. Last week Private Enterpriser Krishnamachari had enough, and quit Nehru’s Cabinet. “Nehru is a dictator.” said he. “I see no more usefulness for my services … I have shaken the great man’s hand for the last time.”