Swatantra Newsletter

Summary

Issue No. 75 of the Swatantra Newsletter (August/September 1970) is a party-organ report on the General Council meeting held at Madras on 21–22 July 1970, opening with a full-page editorial titled ‘Save India’ that welcomes the AICC (Organisation Congress) call for a consolidation of nationalist and democratic forces and casts the Swatantra Party as the disciplined, unhesitating respondent to that call. The bulk of the issue prints or summarises the speeches of Party President Minoo Masani and Party founder Rajaji, both of whom argue that the Congress (O) split, the drift of the Indira Gandhi government toward personality politics and ‘Marxist jargon’, the collapse of the United Front government in West Bengal, and the rise of Naxalite violence together demand the formation of a broad democratic bloc in Parliament and the country.

Masani’s address to the General Council frames the moment as an opportunity to build a ‘middle-of-the-road programme’ acceptable to ‘Democratic Socialists’ as much as to Liberal Democrats, insists that the ruling axiom must be neither ‘Left’ nor ‘Right’ but the defence of the Constitution against a Moscow- or Peking-oriented dictatorship, and calls for a Commission on Civil Rights to enforce non-discrimination and secular equality. His reply to the debate defends the alliance with the Jan Sangh, offers reassurance to Muslims and minorities, and closes with the aphorism that the Party must accept the inconveniences of being ‘pioneers in progress’. Rajaji’s speeches — the resolution-moving speech and his concluding remarks ‘Shed Your Fears’ — compare the danger the present Prime Minister poses to India with the danger Hitler once posed to Europe, urge that the Party be strengthened as a ‘poor man’s party’ rather than a rich man’s party, and exhort every unit to become financially self-sufficient by imitating Gandhi’s discipline of small subscriptions.

A long central section reports the deliberations of the Central Parliamentary Board and the National Executive on the Preventive Detention Act in Bengal, the Octroi on goods entering Calcutta, the aborted move to impeach Supreme Court Justice Shah, the salaries and perquisites of Union ministers, the forthcoming Kerala elections, the situation in Gujarat and Orissa, and the expulsion of C. C. Desai. Annexure A prints the resolutions adopted unanimously by the Council — on West Bengal (calling for President’s Rule and the removal of Governor S. S. Dhawan), Cambodia (praising Nixon’s intervention and denouncing Mrs Gandhi’s ‘Soviet satellitism’), nationalisation of the cotton and distributive trades, growing unemployment and spiralling prices, land-grab agitation in Bihar, the Wealth Tax on agricultural land, the establishment of new steel plants, and the recovery of Indian territory occupied by China. Annexure B carries the General Secretary’s report on party organisation, and the final page introduces the Fundamental Rights Front set up by former Chief Justice Subba Rao as a non-partisan mass petition to Parliament defending Articles 19 and 31. A boxed obituary mourns the assassination of Sardar Basant Singh, Punjab General Secretary. The rendered pages span the entire 16-page newsletter, so coverage of the issue is complete.

Key points

• The issue frames the July 1970 AICC (Organisation Congress) resolution for consolidation of nationalist and democratic forces as vindication of Swatantra’s founding position and calls for a broad democratic bloc in Parliament.
• Minoo Masani’s Presidential address rejects both ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ labels, defends the middle-of-the-road programme as acceptable to Democratic Socialists and Liberal Democrats alike, and proposes a Commission on Civil Rights to enforce non-discrimination.
• Rajaji’s resolution-moving speech likens the danger the Prime Minister poses to India to the danger Hitler once posed to Europe, and his concluding ‘Shed Your Fears’ remarks urge that the Party be built as a poor man’s party through small self-generated subscriptions.
• Central Parliamentary Board actions reported include opposition to the Preventive Detention Act’s use in Bengal, resistance to a Calcutta Octroi levy, withdrawal from the move to impeach Justice Shah, and a Private Member’s Bill to integrate ministerial salaries and perquisites.
• National Executive decisions expel C. C. Desai for indiscipline, uphold the expulsion of M. C. Desai, review coalition performance in Orissa, register the Gujarat Unit’s lapsed status, and authorise a democratic front in Kerala barring the two communist parties and the Ruling Congress.
• Annexure A prints unanimous resolutions demanding President’s Rule in West Bengal and removal of Governor S. S. Dhawan, condemning Government of India policy on Cambodia as an ‘extension of Soviet satellitism’, opposing nationalisation of cotton and distributive trades, and rejecting the Wealth Tax on agricultural land.
• The Fundamental Rights Front, launched under former Chief Justice Subba Rao, is announced as a non-partisan mass petition to Parliament defending Articles 19 and 31 through 20-signature memoranda gathered at village, district and state levels.
• A boxed obituary records the assassination of Sardar Basant Singh, Punjab Unit General Secretary and Party National Executive member, framed by Rajaji as proof of the danger of failing to tackle communist violence with ‘determined will, speed, energy and clarity of thought’.