Part of the wheel

T.P. Sreenivasan’s article (“States in Indian diplomacy”, October 6) does not include the first significant State “interference” in external relations. In 1962, the Ministry of External Affairs, through G. Parthasarathi, suggested to Nehru that air power could be used to stop Chinese supply lines but this was vetoed by then Chief Minister of West Bengal, B.C. Roy. There was enough intelligence to believe that India had greater air superiority vis-à-vis the Chinese. There is an indirect reference to this in a book by former Foreign Secretary J.N. Dixit.

M.V. Sundararaman,

Chennai