Q
Do you recall any moment of embarrassment during your conversations with world leaders on international relations?
A.
They had not commented in any way, but they naturally, in the course of our discussions, wanted to know our assessment of the political situation in the country. In the course of such discussions, we did make references to the causes of the emergency and the situation thereafter. But it did not attract any special comments from them.
Q
Do you think that the common man is interested in the foreign policy of India and international relations between one country and the other? In your tours of various parts of India, you would have met many people in your own constituency and elsewhere. Did they discuss or raise foreign policy questions with you?
A.
It is possible that most of them do not fully understand the manipulation in international politics. But over a period of time they see the implications of international relations in their own lives. There are today many mass communication media which transmit information, undoubtedly in a capsuled form. But world events are linked and have their impact on everybody's lives and sooner or later people have to face the consequences of the actions of those far away from them. The concept of Gandhiji's daridranarayan, or the later modifications of it in the form of garibi hatao and antodaya should have universal application. The poor in the developing world, the slum-dwellers in the backyards of New York, the under-privileged in Africa, the harassed and persecuted people in different parts of the world -all these need sustenance and succour, as much as the poor in the remote and inaccessible parts of our own country. Our humanism should have a wider connotation and in the ultimate analysis it implies the emergence of a better human being who conforms to a code of higher moral behaviour in the world.
Q.
You had attended the Commonwealth summit conference at Kingston in 1975. Did this Commonwealth summit discuss questions relating to moral uplift of humanity as a whole?
A.
It was a very interesting conference in which some developing countries of all the continents as well as some developed countries like Canada and the UK participated. I think as time passes the problems of the developing world are getting priority for discussion in these conferences. That is why I said in answer to another question that the question of a new economic order figured very prominently at the Kingston conference.
