Ford Broadcasts, 1965-1966: 12237637

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

known famine and starvation for many years. But today when we talk of famine it is not in the sense in which we knew these words before independence. There is an acute shortage of food in our country in specific scarcity areas. There are no people dying of starvation. With the friendly help which we are getting, the import of food grains, we hope to avert famine, but it is a danger if we don't get the help. And there is also the danger not perhaps of actual famine but of malnutrition which can be also critical to our nation's progress.

MISS FREDERICK: President Johnson has spoken to Dutch Foreign Minister Luns about the possibility of calling an international conference to develop and coordinate greater famine relief for India. Did the President talk with you about such a conference, and if so, are there plans for it?

MRS. GANDHI: No, he did not mention this to me though he did mention that he would like other countries to help in this matter.

MISS FREDERICK: Prime Minister Gandhi, can India's food problem be handled effectively without sharp control of the population?

MRS. GANDHI: Well, we are doing-we have plans for the control of the population, but naturally this is something which will take a little time.

MISS FREDERICK: You have said that India is evolving purposeful and meaningful national concensus based upon principles of secularism and democratic socialism. Have you found any hesitancy about extending help to India, either in contributions or through private investment, in view of India's determination to become a democratic socialist state?

MRS. GANDHI: I don't think the hesitations are because of the word "socialism." The hesitations are because private enterprise feels that perhaps the conditions for investment are not as they would like them to be. But I think this is due to a misconception. We are encouraging private investment and trying to create very suitable conditions for it.

MISS FREDERICK: To what extent would private investment be free to carry out its programs in India?

MRS. GANDHI: It is free to a large extent. We allow them all the facilities which they need, practically. Naturally, this has to be conditioned by national interest.

MR. POTTER: Mrs. Gandhi, it has been suggested that the Congress Party bosses in India selected you because you are your father's daughter and you bear the name "Gandhi," which was made famous by Mahatma Gandhi, in order to win the elections coming up early next year. Do you have any plans for early retirement thereafter?

MRS. GANDHI: I have no plans at the moment except to get on with the job.

MR. POTTER: I am not going to ask you how India takes to

petticoat rule, but aren't you rather young by Indian standards to be running that great country?

MRS. GANDHI: Youth is a matter of which side you look at it from. I mean if you ask a twenty-year-old, forty-seven, fortyeight seems quite old. Of course, if you ask someone who is eighty years old, he will think it is young.

I think in experience I am quite old by now.

MR. POTTER: It has been reported that Krishna Menon, who used to see a good deal of your father, now walks in your garden but doesn't get inside to talk to you. Would you tell us the state of your relations with Mr. Menon?

MRS. GANDHI: They are exactly as they were before, which is cordial. I don't know how often he has walked in the garden without seeing me. I think I have met him a couple of times since I have become Prime Minister.

MR. POTTER: He is a member of Parliament. Did he support your candidacy for the Prime Ministership?

MRS. GANDHI: He did at the end, yes.

MR. BRITTER: Mrs. Gandhi, I think you said in Washington that you had some understanding of the American aims in Viet Nam. Would you go a little further and tell us if you think that India, itself, also has something at stake in the war in Viet Nam in terms of the freedom of democratic countries?

MRS. GANDHI: I don't think that I said exactly that, Mr. Britter. What I had said was that the Americans are in a difficult situation, and I can understand their difficulties, now. I have expressed my views on Viet Nam many times, and I believe that the best way of guarding the freedom of that area is by the countries being strengthened economically and socially and enabling them to progress, so that the people have a greater sense of security within their countries.

MR. BRITTER: You speak of being strengthened economically and socially. What about being strengthened militarily? If I may put it in rather alarmist terms, can you see a set of circumstances in which India might have to make common cause with, say, Russia and the United States, to defend itself against an aggressive China, which is seeking to overrun not only India but the other countries of South Asia?

MRS. GANDHI: At the moment that is a very hypothetical question. I don't think that either Russia or China will want to rush into a war for sometime.

MR. BRITTER: China has already attacked India and may do so again?

MRS. GANDHI: That is so, and she still continues to adopt a most menacing attitude on our northern frontier. Also in her protest notes, she is quite threatening. But it is difficult to say whether she will actually launch a large-scale attack.

MR. BRITTER: Now, China has the bomb. India has the capacity to make the bomb. Can you foresee a set of circumstances