GENERAL SECRETARY'S CIRCULAR NO 321

Summary

This four-page English circular, issued by Swatantra Party General Secretary Girish Munshi on November 27, 1974, reports on the party’s response to the August 1974 National Convention. Munshi argues that the convention’s attempted dissolution or merger abandoned the party’s founding ideology, as articulated in Piloo Mody’s June letter, in favour of a programme-based national alternative. He invokes C. Rajagopalachari’s final appeal to keep the party alive and announces a decision to rebuild it from the grassroots as a party representing workers, farmers, small traders, businessmen, and village artisans, while opposing despotism, corruption, nepotism, and an over-powerful state.

The enclosed resolutions of the Swatantra Party’s National General Council, meeting in Madras on December 8, 1974, declare the August convention’s dissolution resolution illegal and affirm the party’s continuing right to its name, flag, symbol, assets, and properties. They reorganise party offices and state units, shift headquarters from Bombay to Madras, and support Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement against corruption and nepotism. The final resolution criticises the ruling Congress’s 13-point programme at Narora as populist and ineffective, particularly for concentrating on distribution while neglecting production.

Key points

• The circular rejects the August 1974 convention’s attempt to dissolve or merge the Swatantra Party.
• It characterises Piloo Mody’s proposed national alternative as programme-based rather than ideologically based.
• It presents Rajaji’s final wish as a mandate to preserve and properly organise the party.
• It calls for rebuilding the party from the grassroots among workers, farmers, small traders, businessmen, and village artisans.
• The December General Council resolutions affirm the party’s legal continuity, property, flag, and election symbol.
• The resolutions reorganise the National Executive and state units and move party headquarters from Bombay to Madras.
• The Council supports Jayaprakash Narayan’s anti-corruption movement and condemns the ruling Congress’s Narora programme as populist and economically ineffective.