Members of India’s Parliament in opposition to the Government demanded today that the Government apologize for “gross discourtesy” in ordering cancelation of an Israel Independence Day reception planned to have been held at a hotel here last Thursday by Israel’s Consul-General, Nasri Gordon. M.R. Masani, leader of the conservative Swatnatra Party, called the Government’s action “churlish, ” and insisted that the External Affairs Ministry issue a formal apology. H.V. Kamath, a Socialist member, called the affair a Government “blunder.”
Mr. Gordon himself would make no comment beyond an announcement he inserted in local newspapers, stating that his planned reception had been canceled “due to reasons beyond our control.” When guests arrived for the reception he had planned, they found the doors of the hotel room closed.
The Ministry said only that the invitations had been worded incorrectly since, it insisted, Mr. Gordon is not consul-general but only a consul, with offices not here but in Bombay. “Maybe the Israel Government gave him that status, ” said the Ministry, “we didn’t. Indian observers here noted that the Government has persistently backed all anti-Israeli Arab moves, especially at the United Nations.
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