Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE State DED Depl. F.O. - 55, NLT, Soc. Date March 3-A02 4-8-86 6, 1982 WASHINGTON Guidelines, April 8, 1952 By SECRET SECURITY INFORMATION SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS USSR The Indian Ambassador to Moscow, Radhakrishnan, gave our Charge yesterday an account of his conversation with Stalin on Sunday at which Vyshinsky was present. Stalin queried Radhakrishnan about the recent Indian elections and asked particularly about the poli- tical status of women and the extent to which they were allowed to vote. Because of strong Indian protests both in New Delhi and Moscow over recent Soviet radio attacks on the integrity of these elections, Radhakrishnan confined himself to replying that he thought there were few countries in the world where women occupied a higher position than in present-day India. He noted that his predecessor in Moscow had been a woman and that there was a woman in the present Indian cabinet. He added that, with perhaps some variation in local state laws, women had voted freely in the recent election. Radhakrishnan told Stalin that there was no opposition to Com- munists in India, and that the Communists who had been jailed there were jailed not because they were Communists but because they had engaged in acts of violence. He said that violence was repugnant to every Indian and that his government was committed to the development of India as an independent nation through democratic and non-violent means. Stalin's only comment was that he wished India success in this ambition. Radhakrishnan thanked Stalin for his good wishes and said that the Indian Government hoped for success not only because of the aspirations of the Indian people, but because its success would be an example to other peoples of the advantages of non-violent, democratic political evolution. Returning to the subject of Communism in India, Radhakrishnan said he felt all Indians were opposed to Communist, first because it denied religion and God, second because the Communists engaged in violence to attain their ends, and third because Communism denied the rights of the individual as an individual. Our Charge asked Radhakrishnan about Stalin's reply to the foregoing but received a somewhat vague reply. Radhakrishnan made a SECRET SECURITY INFORMA FION