USA keeping
its options
open on arms
for Pakistan

"The Times of India" News Service

NEW DELHI, July 9: The U.S. Administration is keeping its options open regarding future arms supplies to Pakistan. This is the inference drawn here from Washington's silence in response to queries regarding the quantities of military hardware still in the pipeline.

The letter from the U.S. President, his aide, Dr. Henry Kissinger, brought for Mrs. Gandhi earlier this week skirted the issue, offering no indication whatsoever on the line the USA takes about arms sales or the resumption of economic aid. Apart from introducing Dr. Kissinger, the letter dealt only with generalities like the common interests of India and the USA in peace and stability.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Nixon's letter has made no contribution to the Indo-U.S. dialogue. The credibility gap stemming from arms supplies remains as wide as it was, prompting qualified

Continued on page 9 column 2

Kissinger Holds
Talks With
Rahman's Aide

KARACHI, July 10.—Foreign diplomatic sources here said President Nixon's Adviser, Dr Henry Kissinger, was conferring today in strictest privacy with Dr Kamal Hossein, a leading member of East Pakistan's Awami League, reports Reuter.

There was no way of confirming the report, which if true, shows the most serious effort at finding a basis for a political solution to the East Bengal crisis.

Dr Hossein, who was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's constitutional and foreign policy expert, escaped an army net in March, but was later reported to have surrendered. There has been no subsequent word of him, but it is widely believed that he is being kept under house arrest.

The sources said he was taken today to the seclusion of the hill resort of Nathiagali, about 100 km north of Rawalpindi.

DEPARTURE POSTPONED

Dr Kissinger has been at Nathiagali since yesterday and postponed his planned departure for Paris for 24 hours after an announcement of an unspecified illness.

Earlier, Radio Pakistan had said that despite his indisposition, Dr Kissinger would keep his essential engagements today.

A dinner arranged for him yesterday by President Yahya Khan had to be cancelled, the BBC reported this morning.

American diplomats here knew nothing of the reported talks, which coincide with a growing conviction among foreign observers that the Awami League is inevitably a key factor in any political settlement.

Diplomatic sources here discounted an earlier rumour that Mr Rahman himself had been taken to Nathiagali for talks.

Dr Hossein is the only member of Mr Rahman's high command to be made captive apart from the leader himself. In the 10-day abortive talks in March he was in the Awami League's team which negotiated with President Yahya's aides.

18 Paise including Sunday Magazine

PATRIOT

UP IN MOROCCO;
STATE UNKNOWN

eral well-known resistance
chers against the former
rench colonial regime.

Sources at the palace said
three Moroccan army Generals
and the Belgian Ambassador to
Rabat were killed, and King
Hassan's brother, Prince Mtolay
quallah, was wounded.

at Casablanca, an Arab lan-
guage broadcast on Radio Mo-
co said: "Attention the

man said he understood the
country was generally calm
outside Rabat and the King's
palace region at Skhirat.

Troops surrounded the sum-
mer palace and army headquar-
ters, the radio station and the
central post office in Rabat. A
radio communique said power
was in the hands of the army
and declared "long live the re-
public."

The army announcement of
the King's death followed re-
ports that a terrorist attack had
been directed against him at
Skhirat Palace.

At 1816 GMT Moroccan Ra-
dio announced on its French-
speaking service: "The King
is dead, long live the republic."

"This afternoon", the an-
nouncement said, "the national
armed forces, after wiping out
the feudal system, took power
in the people's name."

"Men and women of Moroc-
co, be vigilant and pay no at-
tention to anti-revolutionary
and anti-popular instructions."

The announcement was fol-
lowed by continuous military
music.

King Hassan was born on 9
July, 1929, in the Royal palace
of Rabat. He studied Law in
France and was invested as
Crown Prince Moulay Hassan
in 1957.

He had previously been
named armed forces chief of
staff, in which capacity he con-
ducted the April 1956 negotia-
tions for the withdrawal of
French troops from Morocco.

He succeeded to the throne
on 26 February, 1961, on the
death of his father King Mo-
hammed V.

The Alawit dynasty to which
he belonged had ruled in Mo-
rocco since the 17th century.

King Hassan

yal regime is abolished, re-
ain vigilant."

There was no mention in this
broadcast of the reported death
King Hassan, or any indi-
tion who was the leader of
the coup.

Another Casablanca broad-
st said "the army of the
people is in command in the
ies and provinces of the king-
m."

But an Associated Press cor-
respondent in Casablanca said
the city was calm and there
were no signs of troops move-
ents. A US Embassy spokes-

UNITED FRONT INVIT-
Congress
Kerala M

COCHIN, JULY 10 (PTI, UNI)

THE CONGRESS HAS ACCEPTED KERALA CHIEF
MINISTER ACHUTHA MENON'S INVITATION
TO JOIN THE UNITED FRONT MINISTRY.

The invitation was extended by Mr Menon, as
leader of the United Front, at the United Front-
Congress liaison committee meeting here today.

Mr Achutha Menon told newsmen after the meeting
that he would now have talks with KPCC president K. K.
Viswanathan on all aspects of the question, including
Cabinet expansion and reallocation of portfolios.

Mr Vishwanathan said he
would contact the Congress High
Command. The party would take
necessary decision in consultation
with the Central Parliamentary
Board.

If necessary, he might even go
to Delhi to finalise matters, he
said.

The Chief Minister, in reply to
a question, said he could not defi-
nitely say when the State Cabi-
net would be expanded. Since
the State Assembly would be sit-
ting for its budget session from
Monday, they would be busy with
legislative work.

At the liaison committee meet-
ing the UF parties were represen-
ted by Chief Minister Menon and
Ministers P. S. Sreenivasan and
Mr P. K. Raghavan, Mr V. Bhar-
gavan and Mr S. Kumaran (CPI)
Mr C. H. Mohammed Koya, Edu-
cation Minister, Mr A. K. Nahu,
Food Minister, and Mr Syed Um-
mer Bafaki Thangal, (Muslim Lea-
gue), Mr Baby John, Revenue Min-
ister, Mr T. K. Divakaran, Works
Minister, and Mr K. K. Kumara
Pillai (RSP), Mr N. K. Balakrish-

$2,360
million
arms aid

WASHINGTON, July 10
(AP)

PROPOSED American mi-
litary aid to 42 countries
during the 1972 financial
year amounts to a total
of 2,360 million dollars—120
million dollars more than
in the previous financial
year.

The US State Department, which
last the figures

withdraw support
P.V.D GOVT.
S CRISIS

REVIEW OF PARLIAMENT

# America's Unfriendly Action Causes Concern

## Our Special Correspondent

THE working of various Ministries was subjected to a critical examination by the Lok Sabha last week during the debates on demands for grants.

Except for Foreign Trade Minister L. N. Mishra, who received kudos from all sections of the House for the country's impressive export performance and his initiative in making the export drive successful, other Ministries received a mixed fare of bouquets and brickbats. Minister of State for Petroleum and Chemicals P. C. Sethi was perhaps in an unenviable position because he had almost nothing creditable to report.

The scathing criticism levelled against the Oil and Natural Gas Commission by the Congress as well as Opposition members put the Minister almost in an indefensible position. The scandalous waste of tens of crores of rupees in infructuous efforts, and the barrenness of the commission's achievements revealed that the dirt that had been accumulating in the management of the country's oil affairs could no longer be pushed under the carpet.

## ENQUIRY

Minister Sethi, therefore, did well in assuring the House that the Government intended to appoint a high-level body to acquire into the working of the ONGC and suggest structural and such other changes within three months which might lead to an improvement in its performance. Whether this assurance satisfied even Congress members like Satpal Kapoor, who had made well-documented points about the bungling and mismanagement in the Corporation, was not clear. The suggestion for the evolution of a national fuel policy was welcome but it was not clear if the proposed high-power body would go into that question also.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry escaped, without many bruises, largely because the members were in a satisfied frame of mind on the Bangla Desh coverage by All

India Radio. Many important aspects, like the pitiable working conditions of the AIR staff artistes, did not receive the attention they deserved.

## ON THE PRESS

On major issues of policy pertaining to the press, however, Minister of State Nandini Satpathy did not indicate how and by what time would the Government implement the many good intentions contained in her reply: like turning news agencies into corporations and bringing forward legislation to broadbase the ownership of newspapers with bigger circulations. Government's commitment to the idea of liberating the press from the clutches of the big business houses was also recapitulated but no one was wiser, even after Mrs Satpathy's reply, if the Government had the will to attend to these long-de layed tasks or not.

Congress member Chandula Chandrarak, a journalist with long experience, drew the Government's attention to the low quality of the performance of the official publicity media, specially the PIB, and underlined the wasteful multiplicity of Government publications.

The need for self-sufficiency in the production of defence material was the keynote of the debate on the demand for grants for the Defence Ministry. Opposition members, including the CPI's Indrajit Gupta and the CP-M's Samar Mukherji, warned the Government that dependence on the Western powers in the matter of heavy armaments put restraints on India's pursuit of independent policies. Mr Gupta also expressed concern at the creeping effect of the armed forces personnel being exposed to political influences.

## THE BOMB

The demand for the manufacture of an Indian nuclear deterrent found support from many Opposition speakers, but Mr S. M. Bannerji (CPI) feared that possession of an atom bomb by India might trigger off an arms race in this part of the world. He also decried attempts by cer

tain quarters to create a war psychosis in the country over the Bangla Desh issue. Some Congress members, including Mr D. N. Tiwari and Mr Narsimha Reddy also wanted India to go in for the manufacture of nuclear weapons because the development of China's nuclear capability had made considerable difference to the situation.

Bangla Desh, as Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram remarked at the beginning of his inconclusive reply, permeated the discussion on defence. Improvement in the wages paid to soldiers, reduction of disparities between the jawans and officers, regional balance in location of ordnance factories were some other issues which were raised during the discussion.

Members also wanted the Defence Ministry reports to be more informative than they were at present. Swatantra member H. M. Patel wanted the report to be distributed amongst members with the Budget papers, so that they may get adequate time to study the report and make a useful contribution in the debate.

## BITTER LESSON

Minister of State for Defence Production V. C. Shukla told the House that the Government had learnt the bitter lesson, during 1962 and again in 1965, that most countries related their defence supplies to political considerations. India was, therefore, making all efforts to achieve a high degree of self-sufficiency in the matter of defence supplies.

In this context, he referred to higher allocation for research and development in the current year's budget.

Mr Shukla was also candid in referring to the country's experience in the matter of foreign collaboration. There was the case of the ordnance factory at Ambajari, in Madhya Pradesh. The Americans ditched it but the same factory was now nearing production with Indian know-how.

## ARMS FLOW

Despite its preoccupation with a critical examination of the performance of various Ministries,

the House kept a constant vigil on developments pertaining to Bangla Desh and other events of vital importance to the country's interests. In this context, the discussion on a call attention motion on a fictitious newspaper report about Soviet arms supply to Pakistan revealed, once again, that the right-wing forces were hard at work to undermine the country's growing fraternal relations with the Soviet Union.

The report that some Soviet arms had been sent to Pakistan was promptly denied by Soviet Ambassador Pegov and External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh. But PSP's Madhu Dandawate and Swatantra's P. K. Deo went on to talk as if the denial had not been made. Mr Dandawate tried to equate the American and Soviet policies towards India. His observations evoked the epithets of "irresponsible" and "mischievous" from Mr Swaran Singh—who uses such harsh language rarely.

Quick to correct an ignorant remark regarding alleged Soviet silence on Bangla Desh, he pointed out that President Podgorny was amongst the first world leaders to condemn the blood bath in East Bengal.

Mr Indrajit Gupta, with his usual poise, said it was a canard spread by the pro-American lobby. He pointed out that the "news" had been circulated a time when the American sident's defence adviser Kissinger was due to visit New Delhi.

Obviously, it was a smokescreen intended to divert public attention at the continued US arms supply to Pakistan.

Before the House adjourned for the week-end, members expressed concern about reports that President Nixon had sanctioned $35 million arms shipment to Pakistan.

Mr S. M. Bannerjee (CPI) hoped that the whole House would condemn this "unfriendly act" by the US. Speaker G. S. Dhillon agreed that this was an important matter and indicated that he would give the House an opportunity to discuss this matter when it reassembled this week.