European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 27, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes Anthony Lewis wednesday september 27, 1978 India living an improbable political novel imagine a political novel with a plot like this the Secretary of defense is a key figure in the governing coalition party. His son 40 years old and married has a Girlfriend a College student. Compromising photo graphs of the two Are circulated by a disaffected faction of the party led by a Man recently dismissed from the Cabinet. The son claims that he and the girl were kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to pose for the Pic Tures. The alleged kidnappers Are arrested outside the Home of someone in the Dis affected faction. That improbably Story has been making headlines in the Indian papers As news not fiction. And it has a further twist involving the emotive question of caste. Indi a s defense minister Jagjivan ram is an untouchable. His son s Girlfriend is a member of the traditionally Superior Jat caste As is the former Home minister. Charan Singh who leads a dissident Wing of the governing janata party. So the scan dal or the kidnapping or whatever it is. Awakes old feelings about untouchables. Sons and corruption seem to be the main themes of Indian politics these Days. The abuses committed by Indira Gandhi s son. Sanjay during her dictatorship Are fresh in mind. The biggest political problem now facing the present prime minister. Morarji Desai. Is a charge of financial wrong doing against his son. Kanti. The interesting question is what if any thing the scandal that dominates the newspapers and new Delhi conversation has to do with the real problems of India. In Washington since watergate the obsessions of Congress and the press have some times seemed Remote from National needs. In new Delhi much of the political Dia Logue sounds totally irrelevant. To a vistor governing India at All seems almost impossible. It is a land of extremes great wealth and unimaginable poverty sophistication and ignorance. Its 650 million people Are divided by caste and re Ligion and language. Most of them live in villages 576.000 villages Many of them scarcely connected by Road or communication to the westernized India that outsider see. The population is growing rapidly. Unemployment is severe from the Bottom of the socioeconomic ladder to the thousands of new University graduates every year who find no suitable work. Economic growth is slow and farm production re Mains dangerously dependent on the amount of annual rainfall in the Monsoon. To judge any country s government in terms of its Impact on fundamental prob lems is probably unfair the time spans Are too different. Still with All due under standing of the difficulties. Prime minister Desai s administration cannot be rated a great Success in the 18 months since it re placed Gandhi s authoritarianism. In terms of social legislation critics say Desai s biggest Effort has been to Cut Down even further on the Sale of drink in prohibitionist India. Meanwhile social tensions Rise. The papers make a practice of play ing Down communal troubles but it is Plain that assaults and murders have been run Ning at a substantial level in conflicts be tween caste groups and untouchables. Politically too. Desai is widely rated As ineffectual. The party that was put together to fight Gandhi the janata shows signs of crumbling in division. Gandhi herself is determinedly pushing for Power again speaking Day after Day scorning the government chartering a plane to Survey the floods. Desai shows no signs of uneasiness about his political situation. Interviewed by a group of foreign reporters last month he bantered confidently with them and said he expected to remain in office through the present parliament and the next. One uncertainty in the political situation the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government. Is the possible by of major Legal troubles for Gandhi. She refused to testify before the official commission that investigated her abuses of Power contempt action is under Way. And there May still be direct proceed Ings against her for acts done during the dictatorship. Asked about the Nixon Pardon As a pos sible pattern for dealing with Gandhi de Sai said that had been wrong in his View. In hiding truth he said and not letting the Law take its course there can be no de  the one Strong claim that Desai can make to political achievement is in undo ing the tyranny of his predecessor. And that does matter. His government has kept its Promise to strengthen judicial protections for the citizen restore Freedom of press and give Independence to the. Ern ment owned broadcasting services and Gandhi has left Little doubt that if re turned to office she would take up where she left off ending this vast troubled fascinating country s Experiment in Dern Cracy c new York times $ the has t pm East i Hope it pfc you thrcu6h he James j. Kilpatrick pubic private strikes not similar Seattle the papers out Here were filled with news of teacher strikes. Teach ers were picketing in Seattle Everett and Tacoma. Half a dozen other school districts were threatened with walkouts. No solutions to the problems of Public employee unionism Are in sight anywhere else. By one count a few Days ago teacher strikes have occurred this month in 15 states affecting a million pupils. These walkouts come on the heels of the much publicized strike of police and firemen in Memphis. Philadelphia went through its own agony in july. Here and there the details differ. Cleve land s police hit the bricks Over work rules Laid Down by the mayor. In a few of the teacher strikes very few walkouts have been triggered by genuine disputes Over academic issues. For the most part the gut question is Money. Public employees want it school boards and councils re fuse to dish it out. The conflict will not diminish. It can Only get worse. Of the nearly 10 million Public employees half already Are unionized. The american federation of state county and municipal employees has be come the largest Union in the al Cio. Half of the states permit collective bar gaining Between local governments and Public employee unions. The civil service Reform Bill now headed toward the White House significantly Broadens the rights and privileges of Union workers in the fed eral service. Almost without knowing it we have crept up on the situation that prevails so widely in Europe by which Public servants become Public masters. In virtually every Law that has been passed in this Field the states and localities have forbidden strikes. The pending Federal Bill contains the same portentous provision. But these anti strike clauses Are stage weapons fashioned of papier mache and the unions know it. The injunctions of judges Are As impotent As the statutes. The melancholy truth is that no jurisdiction yet has found an answer to the prob Lem. This is probably because we persist in seeking an answer to strikes in the Public sector As if we were seeking an answer to strikes in the private sector and we will never find it this Way. Public employment and private employment Are fundamentally different they have Only the most superficial similarities. Until that distinction is fully grasped no answer will Ever be found. Last Winter s strike in the Coal mines Points up the night and Day difference. Coal Consumers were Able to build up stockpiles in Advance of the walkout. In Many cases Consumers could seek alter Nate fuels. The mine owners could make their own final decisions on a wage in crease and test their judgment against the Market. The Public interest was affected. Of course by the prolonged strike but the Public health safety and welfare were never put in jeopardy. None of these factors exists in Public unionism. The services of police and fire men can t be stockpiled. The people have no alternatives available to them. School boards and City councils Are in no sense owners or proprietors or investors. Here in the state of Washington their bargaining room is limited by a state Law res Riding voter approved levies. There is no Way a school Board can raise the Price of the product it Sells in order to meet the Cost of an increase in wages. And one of the troublesome problems is that in these inflationary times wage in creases often Are justified. Yes Many pub Lic employees Are overpaid inexperienced postal workers beginning teachers Union garbage collectors their salaries and benefits frequently Are far out of line. But what of the Tacoma school teacher with 15 to 20 years experience who is offered a pay increase of 2.57 percent the Tacoma teachers have been without a contract since june. They have equity on their Side. But As a general proposition the taxpayers have a sound Case also. They live witnessed a growth in state and local employ ment outstripping the expansion in Federal agencies. They look at their Public schools and find them wanting. Eleven Stales will vote in november on tax limitation propos als. The people have had it. The impale cries out for Cool imaginative thinking on both sides but we have seen Little of Hiss far. C Washington Star