337. Letter From Prime Minister Gandhi to President Johnson1
Dear Mr. President:
More than a month has gone by since I had the pleasure of visiting your great country and enjoying the warm hospitality with which you received me. I am writing to you today not because I have any specific problem to put to you but because I feel that an occasional letter at a personal level might be a useful way of sharing thoughts about matters of common concern.
One of the things which had impressed me most was your complete understanding of what I would call the political side of aid as distinct from its economic aspects. The reluctance with which aid-giving countries view the prospect of finding large sums of money to help developing countries on the road to progress is understood by everyone. [Page 647] What is not so easily or widely appreciated is the reluctance and sometimes even resentment with which aid is accepted by the recipient. Ever since my return, I have been asked searching questions in Parliament and by the Press to discover whether I have been pressurised by you or the World Bank to do things against our better judgement. I do not mind this. Indeed, I welcome it because in part the questioning reflects the spirit of self-respect and dignity which survives in our people inspite of the many problems of poverty. This is a source of strength to me.
However in part these questions are prompted by political factors of a different nature. With elections not many months ahead, every political party is anxious to take up positions which are critical of the party in power, and even within my party, there is the usual struggle for nomination which is a phenomenon which you understand far more than I do. My critics have specially chosen the Indo-U.S. Foundation as the spring-board for a personal attack on me, even though the basic idea had been agreed long before I came to office. Such criticism, inspired on personal or party motivation, does not worry me. What has distressed me a little is that many people in academic life with no political motives have also expressed some apprehensions. I am hoping to meet them personally with my Education Minister in the next few days. I should like to give the fullest consideration to their viewpoint and to allay their anxieties as far as possible. It is only after this meeting has taken place that detailed discussions on the draft will start with your Embassy here. I hope that in these talks, there will be fullest understanding of our problems.
You will doubtless want to hear a little about the food situation in India in which you have taken a personal interest. The reporting in the press, both in India and abroad, tends to be exaggerated one way or the other. On the one hand, an impression is given in some sections of the foreign press that there is no great shortage and we are giving an exaggerated picture. On the other hand, constant allegations are made in Parliament and elsewhere of starvation deaths. The actual position is somewhere in between the two extreme views. There is an acute shortage of foodgrains, because of the complete failure of the monsoon last year. There are also certain areas, mostly in the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Mysore and Orissa, which have always been scarcity pockets. Their plight this year is undoubtedly precarious. The timely movement of imports under PL–480 as well as from other sources has averted a calamity. We have begun relief works to give employment to the people in the scarcity areas. I recently returned from a tour of a district in the State of Maharashtra where conditions were distressing. I was heartened to see the energetic measures, both short-term and long-term, taken by the State Government and local farmers. Tomorrow, [Page 648] I am visiting some areas in the State of Orissa to see for myself what more can be done to provide relief. One of the most difficult things to combat is the shortage of drinking water in areas which have poor communications. In our Fourth Five-Year Plan we have to pay special attention to the problem of water supply in the remote rural areas.
The reports which we have from Pakistan are far from encouraging. The entire trend of publicity through the press and radio, the part which Pakistan is playing in fomenting trouble in the hill tracts on our Eastern borders, the kind of rapport that it has established with China—all these indicate a complete negation of the spirit underlying the Tashkent Declaration. But perhaps you know much more about the true state of affairs in Pakistan than we do, since our diplomats have limited opportunity to acquire information about what goes on in Pakistan for obvious reasons.
The latest explosion in China of a nuclear device is a matter of deep concern for us. There has been a growing demand in this country for developing a nuclear device of our own. We have stood firmly against this. But each fresh report of China’s activity in this regard strengthens this demand and attracts new adherents to it.
Mr. Asoka Mehta, our Minister for Planning, returned from the United States on Sunday, the 8th morning, and the same evening, he gave me an account of the talks he had with the World Bank and Members of your Administration, as well as of the two meetings he had with you. He told me of your kind words about me and also of the deep human sympathy with which you viewed the problems of this subcontinent and the efforts we are making to lift nearly 500 million people out of poverty, ignorance and disease. I came away from the United States convinced of your friendly support and cooperation in our endeavor. I am glad you could find time to see Mr. Mehta and that you gave him an indication of your support for our Plan.
I have little doubt that Mr. Mehta is also going to be criticized and attacked for what he has done or what he is supposed to have done. Controversy is the spice of democratic life. I hope that American journalists who may not be used to our hot food and hot climate will not use too many hot words in their despatches to the U.S. Press!
What a thoughtful gesture it was to send me the pen with which you signed one of the many documents which reflect your friendship for my country.
With kind personal regards to you and Mrs. Johnson,
Yours sincerely,
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, Walt Rostow, Vol. 3, 5/6–26, 1966. No classification marking.↩