INDIA THE CRITICS RETURN WHEN THE CONGRESS PARTY ACHIEVED ITS LANDSLIDE VICTORY 
IN INDIA'S LATEST GENERAL ELECTION 15 MONTHS AGO, THE FIERCEST CRITICS 
OF PRIME MINISTER JAWAHARLAL NEHRU AND FORMER DEFENSE MINISTER KRISHNA MENON 
WERE SWEPT OUT OF OFFICE . BUT THE GOVERNMENT'S CLUMSY HANDLING 
OF THE CHINESE INVASION LAST OCTOBER GAVE NEW HOPE TO THE 
SHATTERED NON-COMMUNIST OPPOSITION . THE HOPE WAS WELL FOUNDED . IN 
THE PAST FORTNIGHT, THREE OF NEHRU'S MOST ACID-TONGUED FOES HAVE SCORED 
OVERWHELMING BY-ELECTION VICTORIES OVER HAND-PICKED CONGRESS CANDIDATES FOR THE LOK SABHA, 
LOWER HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT . IN A ONCE IMPREGNABLE CONGRESS STRONGHOLD 
IN GUJARAT ON INDIA'S WEST COAST, MINOCHER RUSTOM MASANI, 57, GENERAL 
SECRETARY OF THE RIGHT-WING SWATANTRA PARTY, DOWNED A CONGRESS NOMINEE BY 
AN IMPRESSIVE MAJORITY OF 14,000 VOTES . TO THE NORTH IN 
UTTAR PRADESH, SOCIALIST DR . RAM MANOHAR LOHIA, WHO TOOK HIS 
DEFEAT AT THE HANDS OF NEHRU HIMSELF IN LAST YEAR'S ELECTION, 
TROUNCED A FORMER GOVERNMENT INFORMATION MINISTER . WORST SLAP OF ALL 
CAME IN ANOTHER UTTAR PRADESH CONSTITUENCY, WHERE VICTORY CAME TO LEAN, 
ACERBIC INDEPENDENT J . B . KRIPALANI, 76, THE VETERAN CONGRESS 
POLITICIAN WHO HAD LEFT THE PARTY TO BECOME NEHRU'S BITTER FOE 
IN 1951 . SWAMPED BY MENON LAST YEAR, KRIPALANI THIS TIME 
ROLLED OVER NEHRU'S IRRIGATION AND POWER MINISTER HAFIZ MOHAMMED IBRAHIM WITH 
LITTLE DIFFICULTY . THE DEFEAT WAS DOUBLY GALLING FOR NEHRU, FOR 
IBRAHIM'S CAMPAIGN WAS MASTERMINDED BY NONE OTHER THAN HIS DISCREDITED OLD 
CRONY, MENON HIMSELF . THOUGH THE ELECTION RESULTS LEFT THE CONGRESS 
STILL WITH A SOLID MAJORITY OF 369 OF THE LOK SABHA'S 
509 SEATS, NEHRU WAS PLAINLY CONCERNED . THE CONGRESS ORDERED A 
COMPLETE PARTY INVESTIGATION INTO WHY ITS CANDIDATES HAD FARED SO BADLY 
AT THE POLLS . 