A PRESIDENT’S PLATITUDES

Shri Sanjiva Reddy’s Presidential Address at the 66th session of the Congress makes strange reading. He appears to be so certain that “there is a subtle but strong thread of unity which runs through the infinite multiplicity of our national life” that one is left wondering as to why the Congress then took the trouble of hammering out an elaborate resolution on national integration. Having climbed into his seven league boots in preparation for the 1962 electoral race, the Congress President has obviously skipped many important issues.The real dangers facing the country have been reduced to meaningless clichés. To him the demand for Punjabi Suba is a manifestation of “fissiparous tendencies;” the blood-baths in Assam mere “troubles;” and the raging inter-state feuds just “disputes.” The quality of “national unity” being what it is, one does not feel too reluctant to concede the Congress President his favourite boast that “one great factor that has been responsible for building up this essential unity of India has been the Indian National Congress.” And with the conviction that springs from a consciously cultivated ability to wink at reality and hug to illusion, Shri Sanjiva Reddy said that the charges of corruption and indiscipline in the Congress are so much “loose talk.” It just does not seem to have occurred to the Congress President that the jungle warfare between rival functions of Congressmen in almost all the States, and the charges of corruption against Congress leaders are matters which must be faced boldly and not be allowed to drift. It is not as if Shri Sanjiva Reddy has not been properly appraised of what Shri Nehru described as “the polluted atmosphere” of the Uttar Pradesh Congress, the wrangles in Mysore and Bihar and the uneasy nature of the party’s marriage with the Muslim League and the P-SP in Kerala; on the contrary he is aware of them all and therefore his assertion that there is nothing seriously wrong with the Congress admits of only one interpretation: That it is a confession of his failure to tackle them as they ought to have been. However, it must be said to the credit of Shri Sanjiva Reddy that he has been bold enough to admit that in the normal course all people engaged in politics “seek power” and “having once got into power they stick to it.” He recognises this trait among Congressmen as being at the back of all “cheap intrigues.” To put an end to this evil Shri Reddy suggests that people who have been in power for over ten years should voluntarily relinquish their offices and take up organisational work. As suggestions go this is not a bad one. But it is a highly impracticable one. First, it is impossible to convince any Congressmen in office to quit; and second it is doubtful whether those who quit office will remain content as party hacks. As long as the Congress Party retains its present character of being a springboard to power and office Shri Reddy’s suggestion must remain a pure and simple platitude. Equally unreal was the one and only surprise Shri Reddy sprang on the conclave. That is his suggestion to simplify the procedure of election to Parliament by changing over from the present system of direct elections to a system of indirect elections. According to the system suggested, an electoral college consisting of elected village representatives will elect a representative to Parliament. In such a system a good candidate put up by a small party with limited organisational resources has just not the slightest chance of getting elected. Were this to be implemented the Congress will have laid a firm foundation for one-party rule. It is a pity that this suggestion with such sinister undertones should have come from the Congress President.

9 January, 1961.