[Meeting of the State Council of the Swatantra party]

Summary

This is a one-page circular letter dated 31st March 1975, sent from the Swatantra Party’s National Headquarters (26, Halls Road, Egmore, Madras) over the signature of Joint Secretary V. S. Srikumar to M. R. Masani at 148, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bombay. It convenes a meeting of the party’s National Executive at the Local Library Authority Building, 150-A Mount Road, Madras, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 9th April 1975.

The letter’s substantive content is a seven-point agenda. Beyond routine business (confirmation of the previous Bombay minutes of 22 January 1975 and approval of an ad hoc committee for Uttar Pradesh proposed by Vijaypal Singh Saxena), the meeting is asked to endorse the Charter of Demands that the National Coordinating Committee for People’s Movement, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, had presented to Parliament on 6th March 1975, and to weigh the Jan Sangh’s early-March proposals for united political action among ‘democratic and non-communist parties’. The agenda also covers renewal of workers’ cards, whether to hold party elections in the normal course or defer them, and measures to re-organise state units in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. Taken together, the notice captures the Swatantra Party in the final months before the Emergency, actively aligning its residual organisation with the JP-led opposition front.

Key points

• Circular letter from the Swatantra Party’s Madras National Headquarters, dated 31 March 1975, signed by Joint Secretary V. S. Srikumar and addressed to M. R. Masani in Bombay.
• Convenes a meeting of the party’s National Executive on Wednesday 9 April 1975 at the Local Library Authority Building, 150-A Mount Road, Madras, at 10 a.m.
• Agenda item 3 seeks the Executive’s endorsement of the Charter of Demands laid before Parliament on 6 March 1975 by the National Coordinating Committee for People’s Movement under J. P. Narayan.
• Agenda item 4 invites discussion of proposals from the Jan Sangh’s early-March 1975 Delhi National Conference for ‘united political action by democratic and non-communist parties’.
• Organisational business includes ratifying an ad hoc U.P. committee formed by Vijaypal Singh Saxena, renewing workers’ cards, and deciding whether to hold or postpone party elections.
• Party is planning re-organisation drives in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, signalling continued state-level activity in early 1975.
• Confirms the Executive last met in Bombay on 22 January 1975.