RAWALPINDI: Mr C. Rajagopalachari, the Indian elder statesman (now 90) has reiterated his plea to the Indian Government to let the people of Kashmir “decide what Government they desire to have”.

Recently writing under the caption “The Indo-Pakistan Arms Race” in “Swarajjya Weekly” (Madras), the official organ of the Indian Swatantra Party, which he heads, Rajaji, as he is affectionately known, says: “... Getting out of Indian attachments and looking at things, as from outside, I cannot help feeling amazed at the folly of these two poor nations. Pakistan and India, wasting their substance on military preparations in a mutual race and that too, from resources borrowed from abroad running into heavy debt to foreign Powers, both of them. The Governments obtain the people’s full approval to this folly by inciting mutual distrust and fear through daily propaganda, all the elite participating in this fear and suspicion. This ruinous policy is the most disastrous of all the affairs of India as well as of Pakistan.”

...Rajaji says: “The strength or weakness of nations rests first on national character and next on their financial affairs.”

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2021