Nehru Succession Open

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 13

Nehru Succession Open

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, Feb. 14.

While the field was still open in the “race for the Nehru succession,” it became clearer every day that the Indian Prime Minister, who war now recovering from his illness, was using this respite to work quietly for the establishment of a collective leadership which could ultimately take over the direction of Indian affairs, says the “Scotsman’s” special correspondent in New Delhi. “The return to the Cabinet

of the former Home Minister (Mr L. B. Shastri) has been hailed much too quickly as an indication of Mr Nehru’s preferences among the possible contenders for power,” the correspondent adds. “True, Shastri has for a long time now enjoyed the Prime Minister’s confidence and has been used by him as the cleverest trouble-shooter. Just now he is handling the delicate Kashmir situation where the whole political structure of the state threatens to fall down. “But even if Shastri has been called back specifically

to lighten the burden of the Prime Minister, he has not really been placed in command of the Cabinet In as much as Mr Nehru himself doe not any more gather all the threads in his own hand, Government affairs are now handled by a triumvirate comprising also the present Home Minister (Mr G. Nanda, and the Finance Minister (Mr T. I. Krishnamachari). “Even if Shastri might possibly claim a de facto leadership, it is Nanda who keeps the de jure position of first in the Cabinet after Nehru.”