Opinion May 9, 1982, Forty Years Ago: PM Attacks CPM

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ended her two-day election tour of West Bengal with an attack on the Marxist idea of “one-party rule” to the exclusion of other non-communist parties. Addressing rallies in North Bengal, she said the CPM-led government’s highhanded approach should be seen from this perspective. The Marxist Party branded her as “authoritarian” only to hide its “anti-democratic character”. In which communist country was there in existence a multiparty system as in India, she asked and then observed: “Marxism and democracy cannot go together.” The Prime Minister said that the Marxists commended certain countries as models for India. But, now these very nations were beset with insoluble problems providing the relevance of the “Congress pattern of development”, free from communist and capitalist systems. She accused the CPM of “wrecking democracy in West Bengal under the guise of protecting it”.

Britain’s Message

British High Commissioner to India, Sir John Thomson, met Foreign Secretary M K Rasgotra in New Delhi on Saturday and delivered to him a message from the British Government on the Falkland Islands crisis. In the message, Britain is believed to have underscored its stand that implementation of any ceasefire must be unambiguously linked to Argentine withdrawal from the Islands.

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Zia’s Offer

Pakistan President General Ziaul Haq on Saturday offered to lift the nearly three-year-old curbs on political activities if the number of political parties was reduced to two or three major ones, Radio Pakistan reported. Speaking to journalists at Rawalpindi, General Zia said the future political setup of the country would be based on Islamic tenets.