General Secretary’s Report

Summary

The General Secretary’s Report, issued for the Swatantra Party’s Fifth National Convention in Bhubaneswar on 5–6 October 1968, reviews party activity since the Fourth National Convention of December 1966. The opening pages describe the earlier convention, the adoption of the 1967 Election Manifesto, the party’s electoral objectives, and its performance in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The report presents the results candidly: Swatantra increased its Lok Sabha representation from 22 to 44 members and formed a Swatantra-led government in Orissa with the Jana Congress, but fell short of its wider targets and suffered serious losses through defections and weak candidate selection.

The report attributes the party’s disappointing performance to last-minute nominations, inadequate electoral understandings with other democratic parties, poor management, the diversion of national leaders into candidacies, and the absence of a disciplined cadre and Youth Wing. It records the party’s campaign expenditure and publicity programme, including multilingual newspaper advertising, films, posters, pamphlets, manifesto distribution, gramophone records, and an emphasis on ideological messaging rather than personality cults. Later pages report on party elections, the growth of membership and committees, meetings of the General Council, National Executive, and Central Parliamentary Board, disciplinary disputes in Gujarat, relations with opposition parties, and resolutions concerning fundamental rights, economic regulation, land revenue, bank nationalisation, monopolies, planning, food and drought, press legislation, and international affairs. The report repeatedly stresses organisational strengthening, political independence from unstable “United Front” governments, opposition to communist participation in government, cadre development, and defence of constitutional rights.

Key points

• The report covers the period from the Fourth National Convention in December 1966 to the preparations for the Fifth Convention in October 1968.
• The Swatantra Party doubled its Lok Sabha representation from 22 to 44 members in the 1967 general election but did not become the Official Opposition.
• The party eliminated the Congress majority in Orissa and formed a Swatantra-led coalition with the Jana Congress, while failing to achieve comparable outcomes in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
• The report criticises candidate selection, weak coordination with other democratic parties, poor management, and the lack of a disciplined organisational cadre.
• The Central Office supported the 1967 campaign through multilingual advertising, films, posters, pamphlets, manifesto distribution, recordings, and other publicity materials.
• Party elections in 1967 expanded the organisational base, with substantial numbers of newcomers entering state and national committees.
• The National Executive and Central Parliamentary Board opposed unstable coalition politics, communist participation in government, attempts to weaken fundamental rights, and several nationalisation and regulatory measures.
• The report calls for organisational consolidation, independent projection of the Swatantra Party as a democratic alternative to Congress, farmer-oriented activity, and systematic cadre training.