NEW DELHI: India is trying hard to mend fences with the Soviet Union breached by Delhi’s virtual support to leaders of the anti-Gorbachev coup which ended in two days. 5 Headed by Prime Minister PV.Narasimha Rao Indian officials are bending over backwards to appease the Soviet President. Several of them issued statements over the past fortnight praising Gorbachev. India is also sending Arjun Singh a senior central Minister to Moscow to assess the damage caused by the Indian stand in favor of the coup leaders and the possible measures that could be taken recover the lost ground.

Delhi has made much of a routine letter received from President Gorbachev informing it of the steps taken after the coup failed. The _ President said that the duly-elected leadership was in full control of the situation and that he had rescinded “all the decrees issued by those who tried to usurp power.

An Indian spokesman claimed that the Soviet President sent the letter — to Prime Minister “suo moto” to underline the fact that the relations between the two countries remain normal.

If a public speech of Eduardo Faleiro Minister of. State for External Affairs is any indication India is in no hurry to recognize Soviet republics that announced their independence last week.

“India will continue to expand its relations with different soviet republics within the framework of the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty and the constitutions of the two countries” the Minister said.

India thus let it be known that while it would keep its future options open at the moment it was straying away from the stand of President Gorbachev vis-a-vis the breaking away republics. In any case India appears to be getting more and vaguer and imprecise in its remarks about the Soviet developments lest it was caught another controversy.

What appears to be worrying the Indian authorities is the growing freedom movement in the Soviet republics. This movement is bound to leave its impact on India sooner or later. Already three Indian States Kashmir Punjab and Assam are in active turmoil and their people are pressing hard for independence from Delhi. It was this aspect of the internal Soviet developments that had influenced the Indian government to throw weight behind the coup leaders. That India made itself a laughing stock in the whole world in the wake of the Soviet coup was the subject on animated discussion in the Lok Sabha on Aug.22 when veteran JD leader George Fermandez mounted a powerful attack on the govt. The reversal of the coup he said had proved that no one could do away with personal and human freedoms. He felt sorry that the Indian government had not realized how basic and influential these freedoms were. “They thought this was also durbar politics in which one durbar-gave way to another. But it was not. It was people’s politics” he said.

Brushing aside the Speaker’s appeal for restraint on this “delicate matter” Fernandes said Gorbachev was a chosen leader of the Soviets and the Indian government should have stood by him. They should have been aware of the strength of Boris Yelstin Gorbachev and the people of the Soviet Union. The Indian government has” blackened the face of the Indian nation before the Soviet people.

The Janata Dal’s C.P (M) and C.P.I. allies were caught on the wrong foot. BJP’s Jaswant Singh made barbed references to the’ discomfiture of these parties because at first they supported the coup and then started praising the Soviet people for asserting their power

Earlier C.P.(M) leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet went on record appreciating the “inevitable” changes in the Soviet Union and painted President Gorbachev in black colors. But when Gorbachev staged a come-back the C.P.(M) leader was silenced. The party started its four-day conclave to deliberate on the changes in the Soviet Union.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 6, 1991