[Meeting of the National Executive and the National General Council]

Summary

These are the minutes of a combined meeting of the National Executive and the National General Council of the All India Swatantra Party, held on 29 November 1975 at IMA Buildings, Mount Road, Madras, with G. K. Sundaram in the chair. The document records the attendance of members and special invitees, notes leaves of absence, and then walks through opening reports on the party’s condition in several states — Orissa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala — and on the legal defence of civil liberties then being conducted by the General Secretary, Girish Munshi, together with the writ petition Minoo Masani had filed against Central censorship, pending in the Bombay High Court.

The substantive business is a set of eight unanimously adopted resolutions. The party mourns the death of K. Kamaraj Nadar; condemns the arrest and detention of thousands of political workers and opposition leaders and calls on the Government of India to lift the Emergency and release all political detenues; endorses cooperation in the formation of a Janatha Front of democratic opposition parties at the National and State levels with common programmes and common symbols; rejects any extension of the life of the Lok Sabha under the pretext of Emergency and demands that State and Central elections be held on schedule; prays for the recovery of Jayaprakash Narayan; congratulates the Janatha Front in Gujarat on its civic-election victory (with the President authorised to convey the message to Babubhai Patel); and expresses grave concern over an agreement between the Indian Educational Board and a Russian counterpart to publish school textbooks with Russian authors, which the meeting fears will be used for political indoctrination.

The eighth resolution turns to political economy: it charges the ruling Congress with a long-standing policy of controls, licensing and fiscal manipulation that has dried up savings, under-utilised installed capacity, driven unemployment and produced scarcities, and it calls on the government to abandon panicky fiscal and monetary measures in favour of a pragmatic economic policy and stable fiscal settings held in force for at least five years. The meeting also announces the celebration of Rajaji’s birth centenary in 1976. The minutes are countersigned by V. S. Somu, Joint Secretary, and G. K. Sundaram, President.

Key points

• Combined meeting of the Swatantra Party’s National Executive and National General Council, Madras, 29 November 1975, chaired by G. K. Sundaram.
• General Secretary Girish Munshi reports on his legal defence of civil liberties, including Minoo Masani’s writ petition against Central censorship pending in the Bombay High Court.
• State-level reports from Orissa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala; Babu Joseph’s Kerala proposal to work from inside Indira Congress is ‘visibly disapproved’ by the meeting.
• Unanimous resolution urging the Government of India to lift the Emergency and release all political detenues to allow the normal working of democracy.
• Unanimous resolution endorsing the formation of a Janatha Front of democratic opposition parties with common programmes and common symbols.
• Rejection of any extension of the Lok Sabha’s life under the pretext of Emergency; demand that State and Central elections be held on schedule.
• Grave concern at an agreement between the Indian Educational Board and a Russian counterpart to co-publish school textbooks, which the meeting apprehends will be used for political indoctrination.
• Economic resolution attacks the Congress’s policy of controls, licensing and panicky fiscal measures and demands a pragmatic economic policy and stable fiscal settings held for at least five years.