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BERLIN e ROME e WASHINGTON e CAIRO e HAVANA e TOKYO (e BUENOS AIRES

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The death of Prime Minister
hastri of India was all the
More tragic because it came
vithin hours of the signing of
N agreement which brought
‘ope to his people and those of
*akistan and Kashmir.

| The nine points of the histo-
Mc Tashkent Declaration clearly
Show the road which India and
fakistan should follow in order
to replace enmity and alienation
“with S00dwill, peace and friend-
ly relations,

4 Shastri’s death temporarily
Shifted the spotlight from the
Political to the personal arena.
With the election of Mrs. Indira
‘vandhi as the first woman prime
‘Mnister of India, attention is
nice again focussed on the
Tashkent pact.

a

iy One of the most unfortunate
hea of 1965 was the India-
i ‘Stan conflict over Kashmir.

Lag most hopeful event of
oa far is the Tashkent De-
ton signed by these two
Seat nations.

te London Daily Worker,
;Menting editorially, high-
i8hted the significance of the
4 ashkent pact:

Re does not resolve the dif-
ba and long-standing Kash-
i 'Spute. But it does take the

a irst %
Wt e H se H
| ee Ssential step in that direc-

~aate

|

: “The
and th
Mal 9g:
tween

withdrawal of troops
€ decision to restore nor-
Nd peaceful relations be-
se ae two ¢ountries will

1€ atmosphere in which

rational discussions on the deep-
er problems can take place. .

“Shastri’s successor and Pre-
sident Ayub Khan will now have
the heavy responsibility of suc-
cessfully carrying out the terms
of the declaration. |

“In Britain and America the
supporters of imperialism, which
helped stir up and profited by
the India-Pakistan conflict, have
hardly troubled to conceal their
dislike of the Tashkent meeting.

“The Soviet Union, as an anti-
imperialist power with no in-
terest in stirring up conflicts be-
tween India and Pakistan, was
able to play a constructive and
helpful role.

“This is one of the factors
which made the meeting an his-
toric one, and it is enough to ex-
plain the spleen of the Western
commentators and their persist-
ent prophecies of failure.

“Their noses have been put
out of joint, but the rest of hu-
manity has been given new
hope.”

The Soviet newspaper Izves-
tia pointed out editorially that
the Tashkent Declaration elicit-
ed. favorable reactions from
many countries embarking on
the road to independent. deve-
lopment:

‘Tt is no secret that the un-
settled, unsatisfactory state of
Indo-Pakistani relations had a
negative effect on the sciidarity
of countries which have freed

~ themselves from imperialist op-

pression.

“I don't regard myself as a
woman. | regard myself as a per-
son with a-job to do,” Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi of India
said at her first press conference
after her election to the highest
office in the second most popu-

‘lated nation on earth.

“Tt only played into the hands
of those forces which sought to,
sow enmity among the peoples,
to fan up conflicts.

“Tt is difficult to overestimate
the significance of what has
been achieved in Tashkent after
seven days of patient talks be-
tween the leaders of India and
Pakistan, assisted by the good
offices rendered in the course of
the meeting by the chairman of
the USSR Council of Ministers
(Premier Kosygin).

“A really sound and good
basis has been laid for a radi-
cal improvement of relations
between. Pakistan and India and,
consequently, for the general
improvement of the situation in
this part of Asia, for the fur-
ther strengthening of the unity
of the countries and peoples
that have thrown off the fetters
of imperialist oppression.

In the Tashkent Declaration

the two countries agreed:
“all

armed
personnel” by Feb. 25 to their
original positions of last Aug-
ust, before hostilities began;

e to withdraw

e to observe the principle of
non-interference in each other’s
internal affairs;

e to repatriate prisoners of
war;

e to discharge hostile propa-
ganda and encourage propagan-
da promoting friendly relations
between both countries;

e to restore diplomatic rela-
tions;

e to consider steps to restore
communications, ‘economic and
trade relations and cultural ex-

changes, and also to take steps -

to implement
ments;

e to “create conditions which
will prevent the exodus of peo-
ple” and to discuss problems of

existing agree-

Tashkent—new hope for humanity

refugees and illegal immigrants;

e to continue direct negotia-
tions at top level and other
levels on matters of direct con-
cern to both countries.

Mrs. Gandhi, 42, only child of
India’s first. prime minister,
Jawaharlal Nehru, defeated for-
mer finance minister Morarji
Desai, 355 to 119, in the first
open contest for the leadership
of the ruling Congress Party.

“One.of her first statements as
leader Was to welcome the Tash-
kent Declaration as “‘a first step

. toward peace.”

Mrs. Gandhi calls herself ‘a
democratic socialist.” Her hus-
band died in 1961. She has two.
sons, 21-year-old Rajiv and 19-
year-old Sanjay, both of whom
are studying engineering in Bri-
tain. Mrs. Gandhi was educated
in Switzerland, India and Eng-
land.

Now that the dispute with
Pakistan is toned down, Mrs.
Gandhi faces great internal eco-
nomic problems. A fall drought
cut last year’s harvest of wheat
and rice to about 80 million tons
— off 10 percent from the 1964
harvest. A gigantic famine
looms unless the central’ gov-
ernment can force. the richer
states (the country is divided
into 14 states) to help those
hardest hit. In addition, aid
from abroad will be needed.

Even if foreign countries rush
wheat to India, the port facili-
ties are so poor that vessels will
have to wait for weeks before
they can be unloaded.

at,
1

The shabby face of a fake democracy

BEHIND THE ARMY REVOLT IN NIGERIA

ee

tI ON Ti
y

By IDRIS COX

The daily press is shed-
ding copious tears because
the “image” of democracy
in Nigeria has been shatter-
ed, and the “shopwindow”
Model for the new African
States has been wrecked.

“Image” is the correct
term, for democracy was
never a reality in Nigeria.
This has been painfully ap-
Parent for several years.

a8 achieved is to bring
this into the open for all
the world to see.

Because several political
Parties were able to contest
in “elections,” this was
hailed as evidence of a “‘de-
Mocratic system,” suppos-
edly in contrast to the one-
Party system in Ghana,
Guinea, Mali, Tanzania,
and recently Kenya.

But beneath this facade
of a “multi-party system,”

IC is the feudal emirs of the
North, allied with the re-
aCtionary chiefs and weal-
thy capitalists in the West,

What the army revolt

who have in practice exer-
cised political rule in Ni-
geria.

Throughout the years,
they have been the servile
agents of foreign monopoly
firms, and close collabora-
tors of successive British
governments.

Nigeria’s political struc-
ture has not changed since
it was devised under Bri-
tish colonial rule, before in-
dependence in October
1960.

The majovity of seats in.

the 312-member Federal
Assembly are given to the
feudal North, which has
only a minority of electors,

Despite the repressive
feudal rule the Northern
People’s Congress (NPC)
failed to get a majority in
the pre-independence elec-
tions in December 1959.

So there was an unholy
alliance with the progres-
sive National Council of

Nigerian Citizens (NCNC)

in a coalition government
for the following five years.

: This coalition had broken

down even before the first

’ general federal elections

after independence, held in
December 1964.

With the breakaway of
the NCNC it was obvious
that the NPC would find it
impossible to get a majo-
rity of seats, soit went all
out to wreck any possibi-—
lity of democratic elections.

In no less than 67 con-
tituencies of the 174 in the
North, opposing candidates
were either kidnapped, ar-
rested, or killed, or their
nomination declared void.

To make up for the
NCNC breakaway the NPC
formed an alliance with the
Nigerian National Demo-
cratic Party (NNDP) in the
West, a breakaway from
the more progressive Ac-
tion Group.

- By these methods the
NPC succeeded in main-
taining its rule of dictator-
ship.

In October last year

“elections” also took place
in the West, and Chief
Akintola, the premier,
adopted similar methods to
maintain his minority rule
in that region.

Since then serious dis-
turbances have been a com-
mon feature in the West-
ern Region, extending as.
far south as Lagos, the
capital.

Armed forces were used
to quell the rising opposi-
tion to these fraudulent
elections. It seems that the
junior officers and ordinary
soldiers decided they had
had enough of this.

Together with the rising
revolt against these rigged
elections is the rising strug-
gle of the workers to im-
prove their living stand-
ards. A three-day general
strike in October 1963 was
successful, and in the past
18 months the struggle of
the trade unions has been
inseparable from the poli-
tical battle to change the
system of political dictator-

~

ship and terror in Nigera,

The main target of the
revolt has been directed
against Sir Ahmadu Bello,
the Sardauna of Sokoto,
Premier of the Northern
Region, and his close ally,
Chief Akintola, Premier of
the Western Region, both
of whom have been killed
during the revolt.

x * *

Military rule is no solu-

tion for Nigeria. Sooner or

later there must come a
more democratic constitu-
tion and the opportunity
for free elections.

There is no hope for the

future unless the grip of
the feudal emirs. and the
agents of foreign imperial-
ism is broken.

Even before the army
revolt, impressive steps
had been taken to form a
united front of all the pro-
gressive parties, and only
to the extent that this suc-
ceeds will it be possible to
conceive of an advance to-
ward a democratic Nigeria.

S

February 4, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7