DOUBLE STANDARDS
MR. NEHRU and Mr. Menon have laid themselves open to a charge of hypocrisy by their apparent failure to regard Russian crimes in Hungary as being on the same level of turpitude as Western intervention in Egypt. It may be that the two statesmen were obsessed by the Middle Eastern crisis or else believed that they could use their powers of moral suasion to some effect on Marshal Bulganin, but India's abstention on the first Hungarian vote in the UN looked shabby enough, while Mr. Menon's reported statement that this was a Hun- garian domestic affair was quite inexcusable by any standards —let alone the lofty ones to which he was appealing. India has lost much of her authority in the world as a result of this episode; but it is only fair to note that public opinion there has been in advance of the government. The Russian attack on Hungary was condemned even by the leader of the Indian Communist Party; and one of the most telling denunciations of Soviet imperialism was delivered by the much respected Socialist leader, Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan, who attacked the use of double standards when judging aggression.
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