INDIA: Reds Bearing Gifts

India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has long suffered from political schizophrenia : he has consistently cracked down on Communists at home while being pally with Communists abroad—especially with India’s neighbor, Red China. But lately

Nehru has shown symptoms of recovery. This summer Red China made a gift of 400,000 rupees ($84,000) to the Indian Red Cross for famine relief. But there was a condition attached: the money must be distributed through the Communist-sponsored “Famine Relief Committee.” Last week Nehru’s government returned the Reds’ donation with a terse comment: “The question of relief is not a party or a political question and therefore it is the government’s desire to keep this apart from and above political controversies.” Added a government spokesman: long-advertised gifts from Russia will also be refused, if they carry similar Red strings.

Actually, the Indian food situation has greatly improved, thanks to i) good monsoon rains which have produced bumper crops; 2) 4,000,000 tons of grain ordered from abroad, mostly the U.S.; 3) a gift of 1,682 tons from the U.S. this year with no strings attached.