NEHRU CONDEMNS COMMUNIST PARTY’S VIOLENCE IN INDIA

Grey River Argus, 14 November 1949, Page 5

NEHRU CONDEMNS COMMUNIST PARTY’S VIOLENCE IN INDIA

Pakistan Criticised For Attitude on Kashmir Issue (Rec. 9.30) LONDON, Nov. 12 India’s Communist Party had done more to harm Ccmmunist ideals than any other opponents of Communism, said Pandit Nehru, Indian Premier, to-night on the. eve of his return home. Nehru said that the Indian Communist Party had set itself to fight every natural .nationalist urge of the Indian people, thus lining up the whole nationalist movement against it. He said: “The whole question has been viewed in India, not from the point of view of Communism, but from the point of view of certain violent activities in certain areas In its wider sense, I do not think that Communism is a growing threat at all, although, in a local sense,: it may be from the point of view of violent action. They have adopted methods which are violent and in the nature of a petty rebellion. They have not the strength for a big one.” Pandit Nehru said that he had information that in the Indian Communist Party there were many who disagreed with the Party policy, and who had expressed disapproval within the party ranks. He added; “I say with all respect, that no Government in the world has been as generous as India’s Government to rebels against the state.” Referring to the Kashmir question as between Pakistan and India, he said that he wanted tol make it clear, irrespective of how long that problem took to solve, that the armed force method must be ruled out. He said that he would not put up with any bullyfrig on this question by Pakistan, or by any other country. He said that Kashmir’s people would decide for themselves. But the Indian Government would not , allow Pakistan “to go into the usual tactics of creating religious feuds, as they have done elsewhere.” Mr Nehru said that Pakistan had committed in Kashmir, “the most brutal aggression in the whole world.” Armed force should not be used to settle the issue. Pakistan had no standing, but that of an aggressor which should be beaten back. The Kashmir conflict was not between the Hindus and the Moslems, but between people who wanted freedom based on Kashmir nationalism, and believers in the Pakistan two-nation theory that nationality went by religion. Britain’s 40,000 Communists (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter Cable). LONDON’, November 12. A report of the British Communist Party’s executive committee says the party’s total membership in Britain at the end of March was 40 161 organised in about thirteen hundred areas and factory branches.