Question: Would you say then that you are disappointed with the result of your visits and your talks with the Prime Minister, that you don’t feel that they understand the problems sufficient?
The Prime Minister: No, I am not disappointed. Firstly, because I never expect anything and I think they do have an understanding. Now the question is to feel the question or the difficulty sharply enough or deeply enough to want to do something about it.
Question: Given the long history of intractable disputes, like Kashmir, on the sub-continent, do you get the feeling that people somehow believe that it might be easier to subsidies this calamity, to pay for it rather than to solve it?
The Prime Minister: Which people? As you see now, other things may have remained the same, but India has not. We are not dependent upon what other countries think, or want us to do. We know what we want for ourselves and we are going to do it, whatever it costs. We welcome help from any country, but if it does not come, well, it is all right by us.
Question: But can you tell us what is the military situation on the frontiers with Pakistan today-because it docs appear confused. President Yahya Khan of Pakistan last week called for the withdrawal of armored forces and troops to peacetime positions which suggests that you are in a state of war.
The Prime Minister: We are not in a state of war. So far as the troops themselves are concerned, they are on the borders on both sides. But President Yahya Khan should have thought of this before he moved his troops, because they did move long before our troops moved. Our troops moved only when we felt there was a very serious threat to our security. I have no doubt that had we not been prepared, he would have walked in, and I would like to remind you that we have been attached by Pakistan twice before. So for us it is not a theoretical problem at all.
Question: But last week there were reports of battalion-sized actions and aircraft being involved and casualties up in the region of something like five hundred. Is that what is happening on the border?
The Prime Minister: I doubt it very much. We have had the experience also of other statements made by leaders across the border, which they themselves have retracted afterwards in world forums. So this is not the first time that we hear all these things.
Question: But there have been artillery duels across this border for some time now, have not there-in the East?
The Prime Minister: Yes, there has been some shelling.
Question: Are they continuing?
The Prime Minister: I think so.
Question: Broadly then, how would you describe the tension on the borders? Is it..?
