CHAPTER - 1

DEMANDS FOR GRANTS 1975-76

Lok Sabha, 16 April 1975

Shri Y. B. Chavan : Sir, I am grateful to the hon. Members who have participated in the debate for the last 6 hours. I have listened with great care to most of the speeches. Those which I have not heard, I took care to read very carefully. Some of the members have made very constructive suggestions and I must pay my compliments for the high caliber of the debate. The constructive suggestions that they have made should certainly be borne in mind by the Government and I can assure the Hon. Members, Shri Unnikrishnan who spoke last, that in this era of people’s diplomacy as he called it, it is very right and necessary that the foreign policy of a country is reviewed in this forum, people’s forum, from time to time. I would like to point out, with your permission that immediately after I took over, I myself had sent a motion for considering the foreign policy of the country so that I would have, to begin with, some mandate, some direction, some instructions, some suggestions from this Hon. House and I might launch on my new duties with a little more support. Unfortunately the House did not find time to consider it. So far as the Government is concerned, the Government is always willing to consider the problems of foreign affairs in this House because it not only helps the Government to review its own policies but also gives some new directions in the light of the position in the world today.

In this debate I would like to make a general review of the international scene as we see it today. The international situation is in an important and crucial stage of evolution and many developments that are taking place vitally affect us also. Hon. Members would naturally wish to know how we see the international situation, what are the major features of the trends that affect us, and how it is that we are going to meet this evolving situation by anticipating events, by taking the initiative and also be reacting to events.

As most of the Hon. Members have pointed out, the international scene today has moved quite a bit from what it was two years ago. As we all know, the present era is also called an era of detente. Formerly, there was an atmosphere of confrontation which is being increasingly replaced by an attitude of co-operation. I am saying that it is a trend, it has not still become a full reality, but certainly it is a trend. The world today is not as it was before, a bi-polar world, but it is multi polar world and it is in this world that we have to watch the new developments and trends.