internal matters but also to external affairs. It is not only impolite but positively harmful to our relationship with other countries to pass harsh remarks about their leaders or their ideologies.
The responsibility for maintaining law and order in any civilized society does not rest with the Government alone, but must be shared by the leaders of public opinion as well as by the public in general. I must, therefore, insist that leaders and all other participants in political activity must act with a sense of responsibility.
While propagating their own views and programmes, they must not interfere with the freedom of others to do the same, because that is a negation of the very spirit of democracy and will necessarily interfere with the objectives that we have set in front of us. There have been some unfortunate incidents public meetings and processions being violently disturbed resulting in injury and death.
Such violence, be it in the political arena or based on narrow parochialism, can have serious adverse effects. I am fully conscious of my responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Government functionaries concerned with the maintenance of law and order, but I would like to ask you, and in particular those of you who are in positions of leadership, if you are also equally conscious of your responsibilities.
The Government has made its position quite clear. It will not tolerate violence and law-breaking and it has the right to expect full co-operation from all those who uphold democratic values and profess toleration. I will leave this subject with one last word. I regret to have to say that I have noticed a rather unfortunate tendency on the part of some of our leaders and others first to urge the Administration to be firm whenever violence breaks out in any particular area and then once the law-breakers are arrested and the legal processed of justice begin, to shout themselves hoarse in demanding the release of the processes of justice begin, to shout themselves hoarse in demanding the release of the very people, action against whom they initially so vociferously demanded.
It is obvious that this is done with an eye to the gallery. This is neither fair nor proper. We cannot afford in this critical phase of the life of this country to act in a short sighted manner calculated merely to obtain some sort of tactical gains in the political field. It is time that we are all true to ourselves and have the courage to condemn violence and incitement to violence and not to tolerate it even if it means a certain amount of unpopularity with some section of the community or the other.
I sincerely hope that our political leaders will rise to the occasion and fully cooperate with the Administration in achieving the objectives that I had earlier laid down for the nation.
Finally, on this issue of the conduct of the election campaign, I would like to clear up a doubt that has been voiced by some people. It is said that my Government is lending its support to some of the political parties. This is not correct and I would once again like to assure you that this regime has been, is, and will, continue to be completely impartial as far as the election campaign is concerned. The Government, however, expects that no
