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ON POLITICAL WOMEN. I have been the greatest champion of women and have put more women in the legislatures than anyone else. But I have changed my views after the experience of history and three women Prime Ministers—Sri Lanka, India and Israel. And [Mrs.] Thatcher will be the same if she becomes Prime Minister of Britain—let me tell you that! You see, women on the whole have better, softer qualities than men, and on the whole they don't go as devilish as men. But when a woman becomes devilish, she beats all records. No man can equal her. Now I can't say that she [Mrs. Gandhi] is all devil and nothing good. That would be wrong. But the good is suppressed and the devil on top. If you ask me what she accomplished in ten years [as Prime Minister], I don't know. I will have to think about it. She always said she has never hurt anybody, but she has a dictatorial temperament. Her father was a democrat in his bones and blood and marrow: he could never have done anything like that. He believed in Machiavelli—that was his ideal. Mine is Gandhi—and Lincoln.
ON GANDHI TODAY. All of you people think that Gandhian ideology is against machines. That is wrong. Gandhi did not want to leave the modern world. He was a realistic person, a man whose feet were on the earth, not in the skies. He would not have discarded railways [or] electricity. Yes, he would say all these things have brought us difficulties with too much prosperity. But can I therefore say you shouldn't be prosperous? What he said was that you must not become the slave of the machine. You are all discovering this everywhere, and that is why Gandhi has become more popular today even in the West. But Gandhian philosophy can be understood by you only when we make it good here. This is the only soil where it can prosper. If it prospers here, then I am sure the world will adopt it, for the world is sick of the other things today. Too much prosperity will always lead to catastrophe.
ON INDIA'S ATOMIC REACTORS. We will keep them, but they will never be used for atomic bombs, and I will see to it if I can help it. What must be done is to have the atomic bomb disappear from the world. The scientists who first of all showed us the use of this bomb were the greatest enemies of man. The discovery is all right, but to put it to that use . . . the poisons will always be there.
ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Our relations will be the same with all. We will have no special relations with one country. If Russia objects to that, it is free to remove [the Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation]. We look forward to better relations with all countries, and certainly with our neighbors such as Pakistan, not by pampering them, but by equality. We have no intention of annoying our neighbors, and we will try to avoid hurting their feelings, but we will not do anything at the point of a gun or blackmail.