My hon. friend, Shri. Fank Anthony said that he was hitter; if he wants to be bitter, he can he bitter, but since he belongs to a profession where he seeks to get justice done, where justice is due, he must not deny that justice in this particular case also.
I was rather intrigued by a statement made by my hon. friend, Shri. Lath Pai, about theft of some map. Well, we have got all sorts of maps. He asked me whether there existed such a map. We have got valuable maps, important maps, secret maps, but I have no information that any such map was stolen by anybody. If he has any information, I am prepared to meet him confidentially and get that information. Then I will certainly inquire.
At the same time, he also made another remark which, I must say, hurt me - rather it should hurt everybody here that there is a ‘China Cell’ in every department, in every Ministry, here.
When a statement like this is made by an important Member like him, it creates a wrong impression in the country; it demoralises the nation, and I do not want that to happen. That is my intention in replying to that point. I want to assure him that there is not such thing. How can there be such a cell functioning in the Defence Ministry or any other Ministry of Government ? It cannot be.
Shri. Prakash Vir Shastri asked why’ we have got Chinese here to teach the Chinese language, why we have not sent our people abroad for training in that language. I can tell him that we have sent our officers for the study of Chinese language, to countries wherever we can get them trained. In our own country also, we have got certain facilities for the study of the Chinese language. We certainly’ have some Chinese also as instructors, and there is nothing wrong in that. But then somebody has got wrong impression, that the Chinese instructors arc part of the military intelligence directorate. That is not true. We have got, for example, one Chinese professor from Shantiniketan to teach Chinese. There is nothing wrong in that. If there are Chinese who want to come and help Indians to know their language, with all security care and precautions being taken, I think there is nothing wrong about that.
He made a very important point. That was about the mess attitude of the army officers, that means a certain class attitude, a distinction between the army officers and the Jawans - I think that is what he had in mind. I can tell him and assure the House - I assured the Rajya Sabha yesterday and I would like to repeat it here - that we did certainly inherit this tradition from the British army, but steps have already been taken, and we have taken more care about it; because we find that the Chinese particularly try to emphasise in their indoctrination efforts with our prisoners of war this particular point. We have issued a series of instructions to see that a new pattern of relationship between the officers and the Jawans is developed. Of course, it will take some time. But I am sure that the present army leaders are very keen to have that new democratic attitude established gradually hut very firmly.
