NEW DELHI, Dec. 15—If the American aircraft carrier Enterprise dares to intervene in the Indian‐Pakistani war, a member of the Indian Parliament said today, “the Government should not hesitate to blast it out of the water.”
The comment reflected the new bitterness in anti‐American feelings which has been intensifying since the start of the war 12 days ago—a feeling that has reached a peak with the disclosure of the nuclear-powered carrier's movement in the Bay of Bengal.
There have been daily demonstrations outside the United States Embassy, President Nixon has been burned in effigy in several Indian cities and some prominent officials have begun declining dinner invitations to American homes.
The deterioration in relations began last March, when Indians felt that Mr. Nixon failed to denounce the Pakistani Government for its repression of the East Bengali autonomy movement and instead rewarded President Mohammad Agha Yahya Khan by agreeing to continue United States military aid to Pakistan.
In the view of a majority of Indians, if it were not for, that arms aid, the Pakistani Military Government would have been unable to stay in power.
The Indians have also been deeply angered by what they consider phony United States claims to neutrality in the United Nations, where, they believe, President Nixon has failed to distinguish between the just cause of Bangladesh and oppression by Pakistan.
Evacuation Move Foreseen
The report that the Enterprise was sailing for the Bay of Bengal has seemed like the last straw to many Indians, who are convinced that she has orders to evacuate Pakistani troops from the eastern region, precluding their surrender to India.
“The time has come to talk plainly,” wrote Frank Moraes, the editor of The Indian Express, the nation's largest newspaper, in a front‐page editorial yesterday. “President Nixon is an old‐fashioned Victorian politician trying to pressure and command weaker nations into his way of thinking and doing.”
Chakravarti Raghavan, chief New Delhi editor of the Government‐owned. Press Trust of India, speaking at a recent official press briefing, called the President “Nixon Babu” “Babu” being a pejorative word meaning lowly office functionary. In a dispatch today Mr. Raghavan referred to the Pakistani forces in Dacca as the “United States‐West Pakistan garrison.”
Effort by Mrs. Gandhi
In the opinion of some observers, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has tried to moderate the anti‐American feelings. She has refused to allow debate in Parliament on the movement of the Enterprise, as many Opposition members demanded, and she has reportedly instructed the Defense Ministry to play down any possible confrontation with the United States over the carrier.
The rise in anti‐American attitudes has affected Indians long considered friendly to the United States. G. L. Mehta, a former Ambassador to Washington, publicly resigned from the Indo‐American Society, an educational and cultural group for promoting mutual understanding.
Anti‐American feeling also appears to have spread to the countryside. A truck driver in the Punjab recently refused a ride to hitchhiker upon learning that he was an American. “I will give a ride only to Russians today, not to Americans who aid Pakistan,” the driver said.