Telegram to NG Ranga

Summary

A one-line phonogram-telegram sent from New Delhi on 28 January 1963 (received-stamp date), addressed to the telegraphic address ‘SURAJYAM BOMBAY’ and signed ‘RANGA’. The single line of message text reads: ‘DECIDED SUPPORTING SOCIALIST AMENDMENT’. The sender is N. G. Ranga — Swatantra Party leader and agrarian politician — who is communicating a legislative decision to a Bombay-based correspondent, almost certainly a fellow party functionary such as Minoo Masani or a party office. The document itself carries no further explanatory text; it is a working communication rather than an essay or article. On the pre-printed form the header ‘भारतीय डाक व तार विभाग’ (Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department) is visible along with the received stamp ‘28 JAN 1963’ and a serial number.

Because the telegram is a bare communication of a parliamentary or organisational stance, its historical interest lies less in its argument than in what it evidences: a real-time exchange within the young Swatantra Party’s leadership about whether to back a ‘socialist amendment’ then before some deliberative body. Beyond the sender, addressee and one-sentence decision, the rendered page yields no further substantive content.

Key points

• Single-page telegram on an Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department phonogram form.
• Received stamp reads ‘28 JAN 1963’; the filename places composition on 29 January 1963.
• Origin: New Delhi (N582); destination: telegraphic address ‘SURAJYAM BOMBAY’.
• Signed ‘RANGA’ — i.e. N. G. Ranga, then a senior figure in the Swatantra Party.
• The sole message reads: ‘DECIDED SUPPORTING SOCIALIST AMENDMENT’.
• The document is a working intra-party communication; it contains no argument, elaboration or attached material.