Point Counterpoint

The news seemed hard to believe, but in New Delhi last week, a knowledgeable source vouched for it: India has instructed K.P.S. Menon,* its Ambassador in Moscow, to discuss the possibility of Soviet military aid for India. Pandit Nehru apparently hopes thereby to deter the U.S. from sending arms to India's mortal enemy, Pakistan.

Since the first rumors of U.S.-Pakistan talks came out of Karachi last month, Nehru and most Indians have alternated between fright and fury. President Eisenhower denied last month that U.S. arms aid for Pakistan, in return for U.S. air bases in Pakistan, is under discussion. Indians remained unconvinced. Remembering the Hindu-Moslem bloodbath of 1947, when more than 500,000 were killed, and the cold war which has gone on ever since in Kashmir, Indians believe that Pakistan wants U.S. tanks or jet bombers only for use against India. "If the U.S. gives military aid to Pakistan," warned one of Nehru's closest friends, "you can be certain that Panditji will do something drastic. He will not let the security of India be threatened."

Red Jubilation. In strange ways, as if the inscrutability were intended, India was behaving drastically last week. Unusual crowds, including prominent officeholders and Nehru supporters, attended functions honoring a visiting Red Chinese cultural mission. India's Communist Party came out for Universal Military Training, proving, according to one U.S. observer, that "they think they're going to get India." One grinning Communist M.P. asked an American: "What are you waiting for? We would be thankful if you would sign up with Pakistan quickly."

India must stand "more resolutely united now than ever before," Nehru told a graduating class of air-force cadets. The army should "imbibe the spirit of invincibility and steadfastness from the noble Himalayas" . . . "If the strength of Pakistan's army increases with U.S. aid . . . this will disturb without fail the entire balance of power in this region." Nehru told some 500,000 in Calcutta that he would oppose Communism if it disturbed the peace, but that the U.S.-Pakistan reports are "uppermost in the mind of every thinking Indian." Nehru fired off another bristling note to Pakistan, the Times of India reported, "so that India's case will not go by default, and her policy can also be molded in such a way as to meet the new circumstances."

Behind all this bluster were genuine misgivings, and perhaps a

diplomatic counterplay. Two weeks ago, India signed a five-year trade agreement--of unspecified amount--with Moscow, pledging to send jute products, tea, coffee, shellac and black pepper to Russia in return for 39 items, such as petroleum, "iron and steel manufactures," and "a wide range of industrial equipment." This agreement could easily be turned into supplying India with Russian military hardware, if the U.S. and Pakistan made a deal. In New Delhi, foreign diplomats suspect that it was Russia that first suggested this possibility to India.

Balance of Power. The U.S. State Department doubts that India would relax her cold-war neutrality any more toward Russia than toward the West. Yet Nehru seems to regard neutrality not so much as a negative attitude but as a positive balancing. The question is whether India can get arms from Russia without being sucked into the Russian orbit. "That seems a silly question to most Indians," cabled TIME Correspondent Joe David Brown. "The invariable reply is that India has accepted millions from the U.S. and has not gone to the West.

"Nehru has always envisioned India as holding the balance of power in Asia. He fears a rival to this privileged position, either one country or a bloc of countries. He has been extremely bitter about Tibet --the Chinese occupation was a Pearl Harbor to his ego. He truly fears that Pakistan will attack India if it has the slightest chance of winning. He is an India-firster to the core, and he doesn't care whether his policies benefit the rest of the world as long as they benefit India and keep her on top in Asia. Nehru truly believes that he can prevent war coming to Asia, and feels positive that he can prevent it from touching India. But he wants to be neutral--not neutralized."

* No kin to India's Chief U.N. Delegate V. K. Krishna Menon.

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