[Letter to Raja]

Summary

A one-page typed letter dated 19 January 1963 from the Bombay advocate Phiroze J. Shroff, writing from Carlisle Chambers on Apollo Pier Road, to C. Rajagopalachari (addressed reverently as “Pujya Rajaji”) at his Thyagarajanagar residence in Madras. Shroff asks whether Rajaji plans to travel to Bombay for the forthcoming General Organising Committee meeting of the Swatantra Party on the 9th and 10th of the following month, and if so, seeks his agreement to preside over a lecture Shroff proposes to deliver on “Government’s Gold Policy.”

Shroff signals that his address will marshal facts and figures in support of the Swatantra Party’s stated position on the question. He requests an evening slot on the 9th, 10th, or 11th, promises to make the necessary arrangements once Rajaji signals availability, and recalls that three years have elapsed since Rajaji last presided over a lecture by him at Gokhle Hall in Madras. A hurried handwritten note in Rajaji’s hand runs across the top of the sheet, apparently constituting his reply or the substance of it, but it is only partially legible in the rendered scan.

Key points

• Personal-professional letter from Phiroze J. Shroff, Advocate (O.S.), Bombay, to C. Rajagopalachari in Madras, dated 19 January 1963.
• Occasion is the next General Organising Committee (G.O.C.) meeting of the Swatantra Party in Bombay on the 9th and 10th of the following month.
• Shroff proposes to deliver a lecture on “Government’s Gold Policy” and asks Rajaji to preside over it.
• He promises to present facts and figures supporting the Swatantra Party’s stand on gold policy.
• Requests an evening slot on the 9th, 10th, or 11th and offers to make all logistical arrangements upon confirmation.
• Recalls a prior lecture at Gokhle Hall, Madras, three years earlier at which Rajaji had also presided.
• The rendered scan carries a handwritten annotation at the top, apparently Rajaji’s reply, only partially decipherable.