FLEET BECOMES ISSUE IN INDIA
A new issue has been injected suddenly into the political : scene in Indie -- the American Seventh Fleet.
Washington's recent suggestion to the Nehru government that it would be well to accept extension of the patrol work of the Seventh Fleet from the Straits of Taiwan to the Indian ta. a which the Pen= tagon now pictures as the soft underbelly of Asia, created commotion in the subcontinent where it was interpreted as an aggressive bid to take advantage of India's weakness,
In the Communist party of India, the issue may help to bring together the Left Wing and Center into a bloc against the Right Wing headed by S.A. Dange. os
At a meeting held late in December at Delhi, Left Wing leaders. were. of the opinion that recent developments, among which the Seventh Fleet proposal figured prominently, .exposed. tne “true character..of.the Indian bourgeoisie and the Right deviationism of the Communist party's Right Wing leadership,"
Harekrishna Konar, a Left Wing member of the Central Committee, told the Calcutta Statesman [December 28] that the political situation was changing so fast that it was not unlikely that the, whole Communist party of India would be able to stand united on certain fundamental iasuea.
"The imperialist threat is becoming so patent, the said, "that no particular ideological group will be able to ignore it,"-