"No Room for Vengeance"

Extract

Indira Gandhi looks more frail than when I last saw her almost two years ago. Running a vast, complex nation almost singlehandedly has left telling marks. The demands of power, the trauma of political setbacks, and the surprise of postelection vituperation extract a high price from psychological and intellectual resources. Yet Mrs. Gandhi's cool intelligence and incisive manner are unimpaired, and her overloaded appointment schedule testifies to her physical stamina. In a long and discursive discussion she developed what she now thought about both domestic and international events and about the themes that underlie her worldview. All together an unusual blend of detail and vision, of minor fact and large-scale concept, they present revealing insights into personality, policies, and contemporary political happenings.