On 13 May 1939, Subhas Chandra Bose released to the Press, at Calcutta, the correspondence between him and Mahatma Gandhi on the question of formation of the Congress Working Committee in accordance with the resolution sponsored by Govind Ballabh Pant and passed by the Tripuri Congress.
Bose’s request to release the correspondence was made after he resigned as Congress President. According to the Indian Annual Register (Volume I, 1939, pp 28-29), on 29 April,
Sj. Subhas Chandra Bose, the Congress President, tendered his resignation when the All India Congress Committee met at Wellington Square, Calcutta, for the first time since Tripuri. Mahatma Gandhi was not present at the meeting. Sj. Bose reported his failure to form a Working Committee, read out a letter which he had received from Mahatma Gandhi and made a statement giving reasons for his decision. The development, which caused a sensation, was a sequel to the differences between the Congress President and other members of the old Working Committee on matters of principle and programme and also to the Tripuri resolution which directed that the Working Committee would be formed in accordance with Mahatma Gandhi’s wishes. Mahatma Gandhi’s letter said: “knowing your own views and knowing how you and most of the members (of the old Working Committee) differ in fundamentals, it seems to me that if I gave you names it would be an imposition on you. Such being the case you are free to chose your own Committee.”
Sj. Bose in his statement referred to the Tripuri mandate and said if, as suggested by Gandhiji, he were to form a working committee of his own choice, he would not be able to report to the AICC that such a Committee commanded the implicit confidence of Gandhiji. Sj. Bose felt that his presence as President at this juncture might possible be a sort on an obstacle or handicap to the AICC – “for instance the AICC may feel inclined to appoint a Working Committee in which I shall be a misfit.”
Pandit Nehru made moving appeal to Sj. Bose to withdraw his resignation, – he suggested that the old Working Committee should be reappointed en bloc but that new blood might be infused by the inclusion of two members in place of Mr Jamnalal Bajaj (in prison) and Mr Jairamdas Daulatram (who had been ill) who were not in a position to discharged their duties as members of the Working Committee. During the debate Mr Jai Prokash Narain, General Secretary of the Congress Socialist Party, referred to a suggestion that Pandit Nehru should be appointed General Secretary of the Congress and expressed the hope that the Pandit would accept the office.