The Spontaneous Pandit

A Spaniard last week contemplated the doings of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s Prime Minister, and drew a fetching analogy. “When a torero and a toro are in the ring,” explained the Spaniard, “sometimes somebody from the audience will jump into the ring with a homemade muleta—which up to that moment he had hidden in his pants—wave the cloth at the bull and try to take over the fight. We call him an espontdneo (spontaneous one), and we jail him: he spoils the fiesta and dangerously distracts the torero. Nehru looks like an international esponténeo.”

Prime Minister Nehru last week continued to wave his diplomatic muleta. Two weeks ago he had proposed a deal whereby U.N. would seat the Chinese Communist delegates; the Russians, in return, would come back to the Security Council table and “discuss” the question of how to stop the Korean war. Joseph Stalin, as cagey a bull as ever pawed the sand, eagerly endorsed the Pandit’s proposal. Last week, in talks with British Ambassador Sir David Kelly, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in effect suggested the same deal.

Replying to Nehru last week, the U.S. State Department rejected the offer. The no was polite. The State Department note merely said that the question of Red China’s admission into U.N. must be decided by U.N. “on its merits.” Nehru sent two more messages to Washington last week, repeating the same proposal, but Secretary Acheson politely declared the matter closed.

Nehru’s friends reported that the Pandit was “disappointed.” For the time being, at least, he put his muleta back into his pants. Nobody wanted to jail the spontaneous Pandit, but the torero would be well advised if he kept his eye on the toro and let the esponténeo stew in his own muleta.