For example, when president kennedy stood for election, president eisenhower, even during the period of the conduct of the campaign of president kennedy, kept him informed about major developments in foreign affairs. We have seen our government sending troops out of this country to the congo and at that time I had raised the point that before troops left our country for any assignments of an unusual character like the congo assignment, members of the opposition should be informally consulted. There will be no question of any leakage of information whatever, If leaders in the opposition are consulted on important aspects of foreign policy, the consultative committee of the external affairs ministry does go some way to meet the needs of exchanging information about foreign affairs, but the informal consultation of the kind that I mention, where the leader of the opposition and leaders of other parties are called and told by the prime minister about unusual developments, would strengthen the convention that the foreign policy of the country has the support not only of the congress party but also of the entire country. I was speaking about our external publicity and it is a subject on which I think I can speak with some confidence as I have been an old time newspaperman in this country, the material which is sent out to foreign countries is extremely scrappy, and useless. There is included in these messages some statement of what this minister was saying somewhere. We are trying to give publicity to ministerial activites and it is inevitable that some such publicity should be given, because ministers are in charge of the government, but one abroad does not get an ideal of what is happening in the country. I would like to suggest for the consideration of the external affairs ministry.
