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feud between Mrs Bandaranaike
and her son Anura, the source of
rather demeaning and very public squabbling over which faction should have the use of the SLFP headquarters, was subsequently formalised when Mrs Bandaranaike expelled her son from the party. The High Commission had kindly arranged for me to have a talk with Anura but he excused himself at the last moment saying that he had a sore throat (I was told that there was some kind of tonsilitis epidemic in Colombo). It would otherwise have been fascinating to have had something of an inside view of the Bandaranaike imbroglio.
42. The only other personality who was hitting the headlines in Sri Lanka was Upali Wijewardene, a wealthy industrialist in his early forties who obviously nurtures political ambitions (he is a cousin of the President). He had recently established two newspapers, one of which, "The Island", was said to be selling well. He has made special targets of Prime Minister Premadasa and Finance Minister
de Mel. It is not clear where the President stands in all this.
Pakistan
43. Inevitably discussion in Islamabad tended to revolve around Afghanistan but I was not so prepared for the amount of attention given to India's policies and attitudes. There was bewilderment, mixed with indignation, that Delhi should be so critical of Pakistan in general and of the supply of American F16s in particular.
Indeed, Mr Tanvir, Chief Planner of the MFA, discerned a kind of mystical opposition to the whole concept of Pakistan on the part of Mrs Gandhi, going back to the politico-religious splitting of the sub-continent
in 1947. Several Pakistanis emphasised that their country, so much the weaker power, could never pose any threat to India.
44. Nobody could see any way out of the Afghan impasse. Brigadier Noor Hussain, Director of the Institute of Strategic Studies, claimed that their intervention was costing the Russians an estimated US$ 20-30 million per day. He also said that Afghan foreign trade was continuing through Peshawar and Karachi and that wheat imports to Kabul were moving along the same route. The resistance did not interfere with this, or with the supply of Afghan fruit and vegetables
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