Return of the Enemies

Two old and irreconcilable foes last week made strong political comebacks. The two--V. K. Krishna Menon and S. K. Patil--won smashing victories in by-elections to the Lok Sabha, India's House of Commons. Both seem eager to renew old battles, with Menon rallying the Indian left and Patil the Indian right.

Lean, falcon-faced Krishna Menon, 73, has traveled the greater distance in making his return to politics. Originally, Menon's position at the top depended on his longtime friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru. It was not enough, however, to save his job as Defense Minister in 1962, following the rout of Indian troops by the Chinese on the Himalayan border. Menon remained in the Lok Sabha until 1967, when Patil --the party boss in Bombay--managed to withhold Congress Party endorsement from Menon, who was running for his old seat in North Bombay. Menon then ran as an independent and lost.

Baleful Eye. In winning a seat from West Bengal last week, Menon was supported by the Communist-controlled United Front, a coalition of leftist parties that governs the state. Menon still retains the baleful eye and personal arrogance that used to infuriate fellow diplomats at the United Nations. Neither then nor now has Menon had any large national following. But he will undoubtedly provide the left coalition with ideas, and his scathing voice will be employed in attacks on the government.

About the only thing on which Patil and Menon agree is that the Congress Party is fatally sick and will most likely come apart in the national elections scheduled for 1972. Patil sees himself as a "ladder" between the Congress Party and such rightist groupings as the Swatantra and the Jana Sangh. He also hopes to make fruitful contact with the Praja Socialists, who broke away from the Congress Party but have never joined the leftist front because they hate Communists as much as Patil does.

Patil, 68, who is as round-faced and cherubic as Menon is lean and hungry-looking, has served in Nehru's Cabinet as well as that of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi until he unexpectedly lost his seat in the 1967 elections. Patil's professed aim is to "polarize" the catchall Congress Party. "If fellow travelers and Communists are in the majority in the party, then the rest of us must walk out," he says. "If the democrats are in the majority, then the others must walk out or be kicked out." Menon holds much the same view: "Who will fill the gap in New Delhi? A rightist coalition or a unity of the left?" If the old antagonists are correct, the years ahead could well be the noisiest as well as the most divisive since Indian independence.

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