Swatantra Newsletter

Summary

Swatantra Newsletter No. 47, dated October/November 1964, reports on the Swatantra Party’s parliamentary position, internal organisation, state-unit disputes, public meetings, and policy resolutions. The issue explains the Party’s decision to abstain from a Lok Sabha no-confidence motion, presenting this as a judgment that the new government should first be given an opportunity to act rather than being blamed for the preceding administration’s record. It also records criticism of inflation, food scarcity, corruption, centralised planning, political favouritism, and the proposed use of Jawaharlal Nehru’s image on coins.

The newsletter gives particular attention to the dissolution and reorganisation of the Bihar unit, the Party’s campaigns over groundnut controls in Gujarat, and its positions on Malaysia, China, Soviet military assistance, and non-alignment. Its supplement reproduces parliamentary speeches by Swatantra members, including arguments for coalition government and proportional representation, a more active foreign policy, closer relations with democratic countries, stronger security arrangements, agricultural production, and restraint in public expenditure. The issue concludes with an advertisement for the pamphlet Judgement Reserved by M. R. Masani and N. Dandeker.