NEW DELHI: Congress (I) president and former prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi in a sharply critical letter to Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar changed the government with neglecting India’s vital foreign policy interests during the Gulf crisis and reducing the nation to the level of a “hapless spectator”
“Indeed it is crucial that we be much more active now he said suggesting a four-point formula for peace and urged the government to “come up with a creative and relevant response” to the crisis.
Gandhi whose party is extending unconditional support from outside to the Chandra Shekhar government said India should have played a more significant role to prevent war and to find a peaceful solution through non-violent means.
The Congress-I president regretted that India had “lost the initiative” and felt we should have been much more active right from the beginning when Kuwait was taken over by Iraq.
The key ingredients of Gandhi’s four-point formula include immediate cessation of all hostilities replacement of the present multinational force by a UN force withdrawal of Iraq from Kuwait and a just comprehensive definite settlement of the Palestine question.
Observing that this was time for India to act Gandhi said the Soviet Union and China both permanent members of the security council had already indicated they attached top priority to efforts at stopping and containing the war before it assumed the proportion of a global cataclysm.
“So has Iran. I have reason to believe that Germany holds a similar view. A number of Arab countries and President Arafat are also ready to take a peace initiative” the former prime minister said.
He was confident Gandhi said that there were numerous friends in the nonaligned movement who would be prepared to step forward and work for sustained peace at this crucial juncture.
But “what are we doing to mobilize the forces of peace at this moment when humanity is confronted with the more serious challenge to sustained peace than perhaps at any time since the establishment of the UN” the Congress (I) leader asked.
Gandhi said the opportunity had come India’s way for its gaining a seat in the Security Council.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 1, 1991
