Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, India’s foreign policy is supposedly based on the principle of nonalignment.
Diplomat: That’s right.
Journalist: Nonalignment means steering clear of the power blocks and keeping equidistance from both.
Diplomat: Very correct.
Journalist: How is it that India has invariably condemned American involvement in countries like Korea, Vietnam, Chile etc., and has refrained from even commenting upon Russian occupation of countries like Hungary, Poland and Afghanistan? What sort of nonalignment is this?
Diplomat: Not in national interest to disclose.
* * *
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, it was Indian Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, who gave to the world the wonderful theory of PanchSheel, and India still swears by it.
Diplomat: That’s right.
Journalist: PanchSheel’s most important and pivotal clause is noninterference in the internal affairs of another country.
Diplomat: Very correct.
Journalist: How is it that Sri Lanka’s President, Mr. Jayewerdene, is openly accusing India of supplying arms and giving training to the Tamil insurgents in his country? Is it not interference in internal affairs of another country? Don’t you think Bangladesh story is being repeated?
Diplomat: Not in national interest to disclose.
* * *
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Panchsheel also envisages respect for territorial integrity of another country.
Diplomat: That’s right.
Journalist: Stationing of Army in other country’s territory by a powerful country through coersive armtwisting of a weak neighbor runs contrary to the philosophy of Panchsheel.
Diplomat: Very correct.
Journalist: Don’t you think India violated the principles of Panchsheel when she subjugated Bhutan and Sikkim by permanently planting her army there? Don’t you think India’s action in reducing these countries to practical slavery smacks of imperialistic design of expansionism?
Diplomat: Not in national interest to disclose.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 15, 1985
