[Letter About Budget Passed]

Summary

This single-page typed letter, opened with the salutation “Dear Reader” and signed in ink by C. Rajagopalachari, is a short public appeal urging continued agitation against a Budget that has just cleared Parliament. Rajaji insists that formal passage of the Budget by the Congress-majority Parliament neither closes the matter nor absolves citizens of the duty to resist what he calls the “unprecedented and intolerable tax burdens” it imposes.

He singles out the goldsmiths — a trade hit hard by the contemporaneous Gold Control regime — as a group that must not be abandoned, and he calls for “popular sympathy” to be shown to them. The closing sentence turns the appeal into a general test of the political culture: democracy, Rajaji writes, must prove it is “made of harder stuff” than passive acceptance of whatever a parliamentary majority ratifies. A pencilled Delhi delivery address on the reverse (to Mr. M. R. Masani, 45 Canning Lane, New Delhi) indicates that the letter was circulated to allies for onward publication or use.

Key points

• Framed as an open “Dear Reader” letter, signed by C. Rajagopalachari, calling for continued public agitation after Parliament’s passage of the Budget.
• Argues that parliamentary approval by the Congress Party does not close the matter and that meetings and protests should continue nationwide.
• Characterises the new levies as “unprecedented and intolerable tax burdens”.
• Makes a special plea on behalf of the goldsmiths, urging that they “not be left alone and let down” and that popular sympathy be extended to their plight.
• Casts the moment as a test of democratic character: democracy must “show that it is made of harder stuff” than mere acceptance of government-and-majority action.
• A Delhi address (Mr. M. R. Masani, 45 Canning Lane, New Delhi) is noted on the sheet, suggesting circulation to Swatantra Party leadership for onward use.