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We're Not Harassing The People...Prime Minister Tells India-West In An Exclusive Interview
"No, we are not harassing the people," said Mrs. Gandhi. "However, I will admit that some of the local officials are implementing the family planning program rather unimaginatively." The Prime Minister was replying to a question on family planning during an exclusive interview with Mr. and Mrs. Murarka of India-West.
Mrs. Gandhi discussed the Emergency, Brain Drain, Housing, Education and several other issues during the interview, a full account of which appears below.
We arrived at the South Block in New Delhi (where Mrs. Gandhi has her office) approximately a half hour before the scheduled time of the interview. Upon stating who we were, we were guided to Mr. Sharda Prasad's (Mrs. Gandhi's Press Secretary) office without any request or attempt to establish our identity in any way. This came as a pleasant surprise for we had expected to be frisked as well. We were further surprised when we were not asked to submit our questions to the Press Secretary for his scrutiny before the interview.
After a short, but what appeared to rather long, wait, we were finally directed to Mrs. Gandhi's office. She sat behind a huge wooden desk, wearing a dark brown woolen blouse and a beige raw silk saree with brown motifs. As she got up to greet us, with the winter sun shining through her hair, we could not help pot, notice that she looked a little frail and thinner than her previous photographs. After a brief introduction, she browsed through a latest copy of India-West, and smilingly motioned us to begin.
IW - Madam Prime Minister, Indians in the U.S. are generally very happy with the results of the emergency, particularly with the prevailing sense of discipline and the economic gains. However, do you feel that there are certain aspects of the emergency which have not been properly represented by the western press, and if so, would you perhaps like to comment on them?
PM - I am not in very close touch with what appears in the U.S. press, and so I cannot catch up with all the news. But generally the news that does trickle down to us shows that the Indian position, not...