Sisters and brothers in India! Yesterday I told you that in any case it is wrong according to the Congress constitution, and also morally unfair for the Congress Working Committee, which is an exclusive body, to exceed its powers and make decisions on behalf of the All-India Congress Committee or the Congress. I should have added, it is also unwise and impolitic for the Working Committee to do so. To an outside observer it appears as if the Working Committee was acting with indecent haste. I feel constrained to say that as compared with Mahatma Gandhi and the Working Committee, Mr Jinnah acted wisely and cautiously. He declared, according to the report before me that he could not advise the representatives of the Muslim League to attend the Simla Conference until after his interview with Lord Wavell on the 24th. Whatever Mr Jinnah’s inner motives might have been, he did not show any anxiety to jump at the offer made by Lord Wavell. Mr Jinnah took another prudent and cautious step in asking Lord Wavell to postpone the conference.
I think that if the Congress Working Committee had also asked for and insisted on a postponement of the Simla Conference,then Lord Wavell’s hand would have been forced. However, it is good that the Congress Working Committee has decided to meet before and during the Simla Conference to make a final decision. It would have been another unwise step if some of the members of the Working Committee had proceeded to Simla in order to be available for giving necessary advice to Mahatma Gandhi and other Congress representatives at Simla. If this had been done, it would have shown indecent eagerness on the part of the Working Committee to grab at the British offer. Now some time has been gained, and I hope that before the final decision is taken on behalf of the Congress, a meeting of the All-India Congress Committee will be summoned. There should be no acceptance of the Wavell Offer purely on the decision of the Working Committee on the ground that several members of the All-India Congress Committee are in prison. If Mahatma Gandhi and the Working Committee insist on it then the Viceroy will have to order their release and to come to terms with the Congress on this point. If the Viceroy refuses to release the members of the All-India Congress Committee, his bona fides will then be open to question.
By urging that the All-India Congress Committee should be summoned in order to consider Lord Wavell’s offer, I do not suggest that that body, as it is at present constituted, is the sole custodian of our national conscience. Owing to the decisions taken of late by the supreme executive of the Congress against those members of the All-India Congress Committee who were agitating against the actions of the Working Committee in agreeing to a compromise with Britain, even the All-India Congress Committee has to some extent lost its representative character. Was it not infamous and ridiculous for the Congress High Command to take disciplinary action against those veterans who were insisting on a struggle with British Imperialism, and on the other hand, let off scot-free those Congressmen like C Rajagopalachari, who were consistently advocating in public a policy virtually amounting to unconditional cooperation with the British Government? Was it not unfair and ridiculous to make Shri Bhulabhai Desai the leader of the Congress Party in the Central Assembly when he did not play his part during the last Civil Disobedience movement? Be that as it may, why I insist that the All-India Congress Committee and not the Congress Working Committee should decide this all-important question is not because the former is not full of differences but because it will be at least constitutionally correct and proper. The issue is one which affects the fundamental principles and resolutions of the Congress, and in particular the Congress goal of complete independence, and therefore it is only just and proper that the decision should be taken by the direct representatives of the people.
I have already said that unless Mahatma Gandhi is exceedingly careful he might be outmanoeuvred by the Viceroy and Mr Jinnah into a position in which the Congress will nominate the members of the Executive Council for only those seats which have been reserved by the Viceroy for the caste Hindus. In other words there is every danger that Mahatma Gandhi might be manoeuvred into a position in which he will make a hasty admission that the word ‘Congress’ is synonymous with the word ‘Caste Hindus.’ That would be the political death of the Indian National Congress, from which it will be impossible for the Congress to retrieve itself.
This danger could be avoided if the Congress representatives to the Simla Conference submit a panel of names concerning all the seats, barring that of the Commander-in-Chief. Will the Congress representatives do so? I am glad to find that the Working Committee has been thinking along these lines. But it is not enough to think. Congress representatives will have to insist that the Viceroy give up altogether the religious and communal basis for the composition of the Executive Council, and adopt a political and national basis instead. We must not forget what the difficulties before us are. I have always been of the view that as in a peace conference, so also in a political round table conference, it is only belligerent parties who are entitled to participate. That the British have now agreed to the partial Indianisation of the Executive Council as a stepping stone to other far-reaching changes is not because of Mr Jinnah and the Muslim League, but because of the Congress which has consistently fought the British Government with all the means at its disposal.
At the time of the Round Table Conference in 1931, I pointed out that it was only the Congress and those who fought with the Congress, who were entitled to represent India at the Round Table Conference held in London. I reminded my countrymen on that occasion that Ireland, where the British Prime Minister, Mr Lloyd George wanted to outmanoeuvre the Sinn-Fein Party by summoning a national convention representing all Irish parties, the Sinn-Fein Party refused to attend the convention because in their view such a convention did not represent Ireland. The Sinn-Fein Party continued its fight and the day ultimately arrived when the British were forced to hold a Round Table Conference with only the representatives of the Sinn-Fein Party. In our case, we should never forget that it is only those who have fought the British Government who are entitled to speak for India and represent India at a Round Table Conference with the representatives of Britain. After all, the importance of the Muslim League is due largely to the fact that it has the backing of the British Government. By giving undue importance to the Muslim League, the Congress is betraying its old friends in such nationalist organisations as the Jamiat-ul-Ulema, Majlise Ahrar, Khudai-Khidmatgars, Azad Muslim League, Shia Conference, Praja Party, All-India Momin Party, etc., in addition to a large and influential section of Muslims in the Indian National Congress who have stood for National independence at very great sacrifice.
From reports coming from India, it appears that opposition to Lord Wavell’s offer has been voiced from several platforms. Unfortunately, this opposition is not being pooled together. In 1940 when there was a danger that the Congress was drifting towards a compromise with British imperialism, we held an All-India anti-compromise conference at Ramgarh in order to rally all the radical elements in India’s public life. A similar conference should be held now and without delay. It would be highly beneficial if an all-India anti-Wavell conference could be held now to fight, organise and combine opposition to Lord Wavell’s offer. On behalf of this conference, whose meetings would be held all over India on a particular day, resolutions should be passed giving expression to India’s real opinion about Lord Wavell’s offer and it would be good idea to celebrate an‘All-India Anti-Wavell Day’ on July 5, when the general elections in England will be held.
Here in East Asia, we are going to have a celebration on July 4. The 4th of July is known all over the world as the day of American independence. In East Asia it is the day on which the Indian Independence League in East Asia was imbued with new light and commenced a new phase in its career. Celebrations on July 4, which will be held all over East Asia wherever there are Indians, will be in the nature of a referendum. We shall call upon Indians in East Asia on that day to give their verdict on Lord Wavell’s offer, and if that verdict be one of condemnation to renew then and there our determination to continue the armed struggle for India’s freedom under all circumstances, even if the Congress Working Committee were to accept Lord Wavell’s offer.
Sisters and brothers at home! I shall now close for the day. On Monday the 25th I shall address a special talk for the revolutionaries in India, giving my directions as to what they should do in the event of the Congress Working Committee accepting Lord Wavell’s offer. Viceroys may come and Viceroys may go, but India will continue to live and India’s, fight for freedom will ultimately succeed.
Jai Hind!