Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Communist Party of India’s leader Mr. Satya Pal Dang has called upon the government not to hold dialogue with the ’Sikh freedom fighters.
Ambassador: That’s right.
Journalist: Instead he has advocated a strong military action to crush the Sikh movement.
Journalist: Is it not a fact that Indira Gandhi ordered a full scale army attack on the Golden Temple at the instance of the Soviet Union? Don’t you think Mr. Dang wants Rajiv to commit the same fatal mistake and then fish in the troubled waters?
Ambassador. Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Rajiv Gandhi showered unusual hospitality upon Afghan President, Najibullah during the latter’s visit to Delhi.
Ambassador: That’s right.
Journalist Earlier Rajiv’s efforts to involve India in the process of signing the Afghan accord were thwarted by Pakistan who refused to give India unnecessary importance.
Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist: Don’t you think Najibullah was sent to Delhi by the Soviet Union to learn from Rajiv the art of wriggling out of an accord?
Ambassador. Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Haryana government has refused to release water that Delhi required to meet the acute shortage of drinking water there.
Ambassador. That’s right.
Journalist: Haryana’s Minister for irrigation, Mr. Virender Singh said that his state had no surplus water as Uttar Pradesh had refused to release Haryana’s share of 100 cusecs of water.
Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist: How come the water that exclusively belongs to Punjab is being openly plundered when other states are not ready even to release the due share of the other? Is it because the rulers in Delhi want to starve the Sikh farmers?
Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 13, 1988
