ON APRIL 6, 1956, CHAKRAVARTI RAJAGOPALACHARI quit the Indian National Congress. The infamous 1955 Avadi Session of the Congress had finally shattered his bottled up disgust. Held just eight years after India attained a dubious independence, this session witnessed the public ensnaring of Nawab Nehru by the Communists – a Nehru who was only waiting and willing to be ensnared by them.
With Sardar Patel’s earthly departure five years earlier, there was no serious contender to Nehru’s ascent to Nawabdom. In the same five years, the foxy Nawab had used his close friend Rajagopalachari like a tissue paper and when he nonchalantly handed India over to the wolfish Communists, it was the ultimate betrayal of Rajaji. In this case, it was Caesar who backstabbed Brutus.
And Rajaji never forgot or forgave Nawab Nehru. A perfervid fighter, he decided to bring down Nehru by bringing down the Congress government, which he correctly grasped, was fast morphing into a dynastic dictatorship. Rajaji also had several advantages backing him – his decades-long, firsthand experience of how the Congress machine worked and the support of genuinely nationalistic and honest Congress leaders.
And so, with a breakaway group of former Congressmen such as Minoo Masani, N.G. Ranga, Darshan Singh Pheruman, Udham Singh Nagoke and K.M. Munshi, he founded the Swatantra Party on June 4, 1959. As long as Rajaji was alive, he and the Swatantra Party remained a perpetual spike that mercilessly goaded the Congress. It is a different matter that while the Swantantra Party fought on principles, the Congress had long abandoned even the notion of principles.
About two months after its founding, the eminent Kannada litterateur, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar wrote an editorial on the event in the Kannada monthly, Jivana. Masti was nearly 15 years younger than Rajaji, knew him personally and professed a high degree of respect for him. The editorial has a timeless quality to it and is an important primary source of the history of that period.
The following are some translated excerpts from it.
THE LATEST EVIDENCE for the fact that today’s Congress is not the Congress of the yore is the fact that Sri Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari has embarked on creating a new political party. Sri Acharya had in the past, quit the Congress but hadn’t formed a new party. He then re-joined the Congress, became one of its prominent leaders, became a Minister, a Governor, a Chief Minister and the Governor General of India.
Until recently, he was recognised as one of the towering figures of that organization. In the matters of language policy and the cooperative movement, he couldn’t agree with the Congress. In order to set right the existing administration, he came to the conclusion that it was essential to form a new political party.
Leading members of the Opposition had a meeting recently in Mumbai to which they had invited eminent people from all over India who were philosophically and ideologically aligned with them. The meeting revealed the fact that there are enough number of people in the country who are not only upset with the Congress style of administration but also do not want to join other non-Congress parties.
Explaining the purpose of his new party, Rajaji said that today the Government has illegally trespassed into every single area of the citizen’s life, that it has ensured that the citizen does not have any freedom, that this needs to be stopped and that the citizen’s freedom must be saved. He further said that the Government’s policies only cater to worldly domains and that these policies are in complete opposition to the Dharmic traditions of our ancient nation, and that we need to save the Dharma of our forefathers.
We are in complete agreement with Sri Acharya. However, this agreement must be echoed by everybody present in that meeting in Mumbai. However, a question arises: did everyone present in that meeting know the details that Rajaji had in his mind when he unveiled the purpose of his new party?
Moreover, even if the followers do agree with the leader’s words on the day he uttered them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they would adopt it as the ideal for the rest of their lives. Gandhi defined Rama Rajya as the ideal national life. However, Nehru, his own pet disciple, till date hasn’t made up his mind to think about this ideal. Today, our leaders who have agreed to erect Gandhi’s life-size statues haven’t bothered to live the ideals of life that he had preached.
When Gandhi said that it was not necessary for the Congress to form a Government after independence, Rajaji had disagreed. Given this, to what extent will Rajaji’s followers—pet or not—walk in the path he has now suggested?
However, it is not our stand that nothing good will come out of Rajaji’s prescriptions. Those endowed with strength and power would stand in one place and say the same things in unison. But there were no ears to listen to the wise words of the powerless. Now, there has been a difference of opinion among the powerful people themselves, and a churning is occurring within this new party. This is a very good thing.
There’s yet another positive outcome from this affair in the form of Rajaji’s caution to us: don’t blindly believe that everything that is new is automatically good.
In our opinion, this caution is very necessary. If our present Governments bear this caution in mind and work accordingly, they would implement several valuable course corrections in their policies and schemes, and as a consequence, would truthfully take the agreement of the citizens who voted them to office.
This is a good framework and path for reform. If our Governments tell the people, “we intend to proceed in this manner. What do you think?” And then explain the merits and obstacles of a proposed plan or programme, seek the majority opinion and then actually implement the mutually agreed plan without prejudice and aggression, it will get ten times more support than it currently enjoys.
However, because our Governments lack vigour, honesty, and hard work, they can’t see this fundamental and simple truth. Thus, our present Governments adhere to the English proverb, “more haste, less speed,” in their reform schemes.
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