A Page from History : The Foreign Policy of Jan Sangh

Some thoughts on the Jan Sangh IV

By : Free Thinker
I think Bharat is much too great a country to be a satellite to this bloc or that. Our potential is infinite. Maybe, today we are not a great power. But we have got to plan to become one. We must, for example, agitate for a permanent seat in the Security Council, with right to veto etc. After all if France and China are to have a permanent seat why not rising Bharat? Thus the full rights of a great power, nothing less and nothing else, can be the objective of our foreign policy. And so the Bharatiya Jan Sargh declares in unambiguous terms that its party’s foreign policy shall be guided “primarily by enlightened national self-interest.”
It will be the endeavour of the Jan Sangh to befriend the nations of the earth for purposes of peace. Today our voice is weak. There were divisions in the Security Council on the question of Kashmir when not one solitary vote was cast for our country.
This must change. Bharat must not keep neutral in the service of peace it must multiply its power-potential and develop its human potential in the protection of national interests and the advancement of international purposes. Applying this criterion to the question of our continued membership of the Common-wealth the conclusion will be inevitable that the whole thing needs to be re-examined.
In Kashmir we must calm troubled waters so that foreigners may no more fish in them. Kashmir has lawfully acceeded to Bharat. We should not give up our claim to Pakistan-occupied territory. Nor should we have in Kashmir suspended uncertainty about its status.

It is surprising how quickly the Government has forgotten foreign pockets in our territory. The British are gone. The Portuguese and French remain. The Jan Sangh is pledged to their immediate liquidation.
Two More Scandals
(From Our Special Correspondent)
Yurn famine has been raging in Assam for two years now. The village women-folk have not plied their charkha for 24 months. But the Congress Government of Assam has sanctioned free sale of yarn to two big dealers. One of them was recently implicated in a sensational Cloth and Yarn Hoarding Case. The case however was shelved after the Congress had realised a few thousand rupees and procured 32 motor cars from him for fighting its ‘fair’ elections. The other gentleman—once a right-hand man of notorious Saadullah—who in 1947 flung a Gandhi cap in the air off a volunteer’s head, has been so bribed for promising all-out Muslim support!
Nowgong produces a lot of Jute. The sales tax assessed on it since 1948 amounts to Rs. 9,98,000/-. Out of this only a sum of Rs. 10,000 has been realized! And would you believe why? The assessees offer Rs. 40,000 as ‘donations’ to Congress election fund in return for writing off the arrears. The Congress -ministers, however, are willing to oblige only if Rs. 1,25,000 are paid in the Congress treasury!