Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, quoting a National Study’s report the United News of India says that under a much publicized antipoverty program, India’s poor are actually getting poorer.
Ambassador: That’s right.
Journalist: Meanwhile Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has criticized India’s government controlled public sector as bloated, inefficient that is giving socialism a bad name and “robbing the poor”. Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist: Don’t you think India’s chronic poverty is the direct outcome of the private sector’s profiteering and exploitation of the working classes? Isn’t Rajiv being too harsh on the public sector simply because the erstwhile private sector managers who are dead set against public sector, are his cabinet colleagues? Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
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Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Rashtriya Suraksha Samita has demanded immediate dismissal of the Barnala government for failing to control violence in Punjab.
Ambassador: Political analysts and leading newspaper columnists, however, hold the central government equally responsible for the sorry state of affairs in Punjab. They accuse Rajiv of betraying Barnala by not implementing the Accord and thus making his position weak and indefensible.
Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist; How is it no Hindu organization has demanded the dismissal of Rajiv Gandhi’s government? Don’t you think dismissal threats actually originate from the Central government to make Barnala commit greater atrocities against the Sikh youths? Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
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Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Rajiv Gandhi has again thundered that Sikh freedom fighters will be completely wiped out by the end of 1987.
Ambassador; That’s right.
Journalist: His mother had also made a similar boast after destroying the Akal Takht through a brutal army attack and for a while Riberio also talked of “bullet for bullet” operations.
Ambassador: Very correct.
Journalist: Don’t you think it would be in India’s interest to make such braggarts read Sikh history to properly understand Sikh psyche? How can they provide protection to India’s multitudes when they themselves can’t move without protection?
Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 16, 1987
