Delhi, Aug 6
As the clouds of war continue to gather over the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent the Indian Government has suddenly made a series of diplomatic and political moves in Moscow and Delhi which apparently indicate that the next few weeks might prove crucial for peace in South Asia.

In the first place the announcement that Mr Gromyko, the Soviet Foreign Minister, will make a surprise visit to Delhi on Sunday has given rise to speculation that both the Soviet Union and India believe that a war with Pakistan is now imminent. Indians believe that Mr Gromyko is coming to Delhi to demonstrate Russia's solidarity with India in the hope that this might prove to be a deterrent.

Secondly, one of India's senior diplomats, Mr D. P. Dhar has been sent to Moscow on a secret mission. The present Indian Ambassador, Dr K. S. Shelvankar, presented his credentials at the Kremlin recently and it is explained that Mr Dhar. the former ambassador in Moscow, had been sent to the Soviet Union because of his past experience and the highly delicate nature of his mission.

Thirdly, and more important, unconfirmed reports suggest that Mr Tajuddin Ahmed, the Prime Minister of the provisional government of Bangla Desh, and his Cabinet made a highly secret visit to Delhi early this week to meet Mrs Gandhi and other Indian officials.

It appears as if this sudden burst of diplomatic and political activity in Delhi and Moscow was preceded by another secret meeting in Delhi on Sunday when Mr T. N. Kaul, the Indian Foreign Secretary, Mr Dhar and two senior military intelligence officers met the Russian ambassador, Mr Nikolai Pegov, for confidential talks.

The series of fast moving events has given rise to two theories. The presence of two intelligence officers at Sunday’s meeting and Mr Tajuddin’s secret sojourn in the Indian capital would seem to indicate that the Indian Government is preparing to recognize the provisional government of Bangla Desh, support the East Bengal guerrillas and risk the possibility of war.

If this assessment is correct Indians believe that Mr Dhar was sent to Moscow with a shopping list for arms and to obtain the Soviet Union’s assurances of support in the event of war.

While this might appear to be a plausible argument it is unlikely that India will precipitate a war at present. But Mrs Gandhi’s government is convinced, rightly or wrongly, that Pakistan might make a preemptive attack in Kashmir and the western front to divert attention from East Pakistan. The overtures to Russia were perhaps made in this context.

To support this theory Indian officials point out that Mrs Gandhi’s advisers believe that war is perhaps inevitable now but they warned the Prime Minister that India should in no way take any action which would label her as the aggressor.

At the same time, they point out that India believes that Pakistan might embark upon military action to make the crisis international. This would cut across India’s stand that the crisis in East Bengal is purely a Pakistan affair and not an Indo-Pakistan issue.

It is more likely that Mr Gromyko's coming visit is designed to act as a deterrent if the Pakistanis are, in fact, contemplating a preemptive attack.

Officials have so far refused to divulge the details and purpose of Mr Gromyko's visit but they admitted that it could be viewed in the “light of a threat to peace and in the light of the Sino-American détente”.

Delhi, Aug 6.—Eight hundred and forty members of the Jan Sangh, a right-wing Hindu nationalist opposition party were arrested today when they held a demonstration in favour of recognition of Bangla Desh in a prohibited central area of the Indian capital.

This brings to about 4.000 the number of Jan Sangh members taken into custody since they began courting general arrest last Sunday in a campaign to force the government into officially recognizing Bangla Desh.

In Moscow, observers said Russia may try to stay India's hand over the question of posible recognition of Bangla Desh during Mr Gromyko's visit to Delhi.— Reuter.

Our Washington Correspondent writes: The Pakistan Government has informed Senator Edward Kennedy that two of the staff members of his senate subcommittee on refugees would be treated as infiltrators if they attempted to enter East Pakistan.

The warning was reported to have been given in a letter to the senator from the Pakistan Ambassador to Washington, Mr Agha Hilaly.

A spokesman for the subcommittee confirmed that the two staff members were in India visiting East Bengal refugee camps, but said there were no plans for them to enter East Pakistan.