[General Secretarys letter no-282]

Summary

This 27 June 1972 letter from Swatantra Party General Secretary Madhu Mehta circulates a statement approved by the Party’s General Council and eight accompanying resolutions adopted in Madras on 24–25 June. Mehta asks recipients to translate and publicise the documents through party workers and committees. The statement presents the Party as an opposition force defending liberty and justice against corruption, economic stagnation, restrictions on the media, electoral manipulation, constitutional amendments, judicial denigration, and the concentration of power in the Union Government and ruling party.

The enclosed statement sets out a rights-based programme covering agricultural returns, housing, productive work, fair prices, labour, minorities, press freedom and social justice, followed by a call for political education and agitation. The resolutions address the fall of the Orissa coalition government, India–Pakistan summit talks, the treatment of Harijans and Adivasis, electoral reform, the Tamil Nadu farmers’ agitation, college education in Kerala, threats to press freedom, and land ceilings. Across these texts, the Party combines support for private and peasant property with demands for fair compensation, tenure security, employment, minority protection, institutional checks, electoral accountability, and resistance to state pressure on education and the press.

Key points

• Madhu Mehta’s letter forwards a General Council statement and eight unanimously adopted resolutions for translation and wider publicity.
• The statement criticises corruption, economic stagnation, media controls, electoral tampering, constitutional changes, attacks on the judiciary, and excessive concentration of political power.
• The Party frames its programme as a set of rights, including rights to maximum agricultural returns, housing, productive work, fair prices, labour organisation, minority protection, free and full information, and social justice.
• Agricultural proposals include secure returns for peasant proprietors, land access for the landless, permanent and transferable tenancy, fair compensation, guaranteed floor prices, and opposition to indiscriminate land nationalisation.
• The documents call for employment expansion, fewer restrictions on productive industry, equality of wages and qualifications, and stronger labour organisation.
• The resolutions support electoral-system reform, including study of the list system and safeguards against ballot manipulation, while condemning money power and black money.
• The Party supports the Tamil Nadu farmers’ demands, privately managed educational institutions in Kerala, press freedom, Indo-Pakistan negotiations, and redress for Harijans, Adivasis, and other disadvantaged groups.