In the case of China, Shri Samar Mukherjee said that we should try to make some efforts to improve our relations. We are making efforts to improve relations. I hope there will be some response. I do not want to say anything more than that. That does not mean that China’s policy has changed or that its attitude has completely changed or that it is likely to change. But certainly we should make efforts, because these are two land masses living together for centuries. Geography has put us near each other. I do not think we can select our neighbours. In the same manner as they say, “Great men are born”, neighbours are also geographically born. One should make an effort to find out whether there are any possibilities of improving the relations. India wants to do it. Prof. Mukherjee said : “Select your friends and find out your enemies.” Well, I would say “Treat everybody as a friend and don’t be gullible enough to forget that somebody can be your enemy.” I would put it that way. You cannot say that everybody will always be your friend; and that your enemy will always remain so. If anybody wants to be an enemy, we should try to see that he does not remain so. That is why all our leaders from Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru to Mrs. Gandhi have said on many occasions that with those who are our friends, we will try to develop, broaden and deepen our relations. With those who are not our friends, we will try to persuade them to take more interest in us. With those whose are hostile to us, we have to work in such a manner that their hostility is lessened and that at least there is some possibility of co-operation. That is what, I think any wise country would do. This is exactly what we are doing. They say that nations have interests. Yes nations have interests; but certainly nations also have principles.
A nation which does not have any principles, sometimes does not understand its interests. What are our principles? As I have said, our principles are : friendship, world peace and non-alignment. What is the crux of the policy of non-alignment? I was a little pained to hear my friend, Mr. Naik, pained in a sense because he is a person who always makes very interesting speeches and I always like to listen to him. He talked of “selective alliance”. I really do not know that that term “selective alliance” means. Anyway, he said one thing about non-alignment. Since this point has been argued many times here on the floor of this house I do not want to take more time of the house in saying that it is not a negative concept. It is an elementary sort of interpretation to say that because the word “non” is there in “non-alignment” so it is negative. It is a positive concept.
I would like my hon. friend to know what non-alignment really is. Right from the beginning, Jawaharlal Nehru conceived of non-alignment as a composite policy consisting of a number of fundamental elements. actually once, in 1956, he said that non-alignment with military blocs “in itself is not a policy; it is only part of a policy. He added :
“The policy itself can only be a policy of acting according to our best judgment and following a particular objective and idea we have ... our foreign policy has this positive aspect of peace. The other positive aspects are enlargement of freedom in the world, replacement of colonialism by free and independent countries and a larger degree of cooperation among nations.”
For Nehru non-alignment was a composite policy covering the search for peace, the struggle for independence, the fight against colonialism, neo-colonialism and racialism, the struggle for political and economic equality among nations and fight for a new just, peaceful, world order. His conception of non alignment was such that it remains entirely valid even today, as it included not only non-alignment with military blocks, but also basic questions of politics and economics including the adjustment of relation between developed and developing nations and the current theme of a new economic order.
I am again tempted to quote Nehru. He wrote an article “Changing India”, which was published in Foreign Affairs, just a year before he died. In April 1963 he wrote an article, which I am quoting, because it is much better that we know what our policies are and what are the basic formulations of our policy. Nehru said :