PRAKASAM AT THE HELM

MR. PRAKASAM has made a gallant fight for the leadership of the Congress Legislature Party—and won.

Even on the morning of the day of election the odds seemed to be heavy against him, though a prominent business magnate is reported to have offered bets of 100 t 1 backing Mr. Prakasam as victor.

The most formidable of the forces ranged against Mr. Prakasam was Gandhiji’s alleged opposition to his leadership.

Dr. Pattabhi is reported to have carried tales to the Mahatma impugning the integrity of Mr. Prakasam. Of some of the charges he easily cleared himself while at Delhi. On one issue however it would appear that Gandhiji was adamant, and would not be dislodged from his unfavourable judgment on Mr. Prakasam, by anything said by him in his defence.

It might be recalled that, after his release, purses were presented to Mr. Prakasam in several districts totaling some 50,000 rupees. Gandhiji took the view that the money should have been made over the Congress as Mr. Prakasam happened to be the President of the Andhra Provincial Congress Committee.

It was Mr. Prakasam’c contention that the donors of the purses expressly required him not to part with them for any public purpose but to keep them for his own use. He was prepared however to make good the amount of the presents and hand it over before the end of the month to the Working Committee for such disposal as they may feel called upon to make of it after due consideration.

Gandhiji’s scrupulous regard for rectitude seems to have overshot the mark and landed him in this case into what looks like unfairness to a wholetime public worker who should have fared better at his hands.

Many Congress leaders who gave up their professions in response to the Gandhian call for non-co-operation have all over the country found admiring patrons to relieve them of their financial embarrassments in recognition of their political worth and importance. Morally there seems to be little difference between private contributions of this kind from individuals and presentation in public in the form of purses from the proceeds of collections from a number of people. It does not stand to reason that the latter should be condemned while the former is condoned.

Mr. Prakasam is known to have thrown up a great practice at the Bar and spent a large fortune of his own, it might be not very wisely, but at any rate quite unselfishly. He is regarded by people as a man of sacrifice who renounced his all in service of Congress and country. If some of them out of concern for his comfort and as a token of regard shower on him money according to their means, what is wrong about it?

Mr. Prakasam is entitled to take from the people what they voluntarily choose to give him, and Gandhiji’s enormous influence should not be turned into a bludgeon to injure him when he does no wrong beyond exercising such a right.

I wish however Mr. Prakasam had not offered to make good what he had received by way of purses. For one thing, it indicates weak faith in the right asserted. Secondly, it involves recourse to further obligations, from which a Prime Minister (as he will presently become) ought to be immune. When large sums are raised on credit by Congress Prime Ministers having no property of their own Gandhiji as the custodian of Congress morale is certainly justified in calling on them to disclose the sources from which they are drawn. Indebtedness and high responsibility in the name of the State will go together.

Another danger that confronts Mr. Prakasam arises from the character of the political companions to whom he owes his election to the leadership. Some of them have evinced extraordinary unscrupulousness. I gather from reliable sources that one of them, Kala Venkat Rao, occupying the important post of Secretary to the Andhra P.C.C., pledged his support simultaneously to not less than four aspirants for leadership who at one time figured on the scene, apparently by way of consolidating his chances for a ministerial job whoever might win! Too clever intriguers bring no credit to any Ministry and Mr. Prakasam should be wary of them as well as of the notorious Tamil Nadu “clique” which, having used him to the full in the anti-C.R. campaign, suddenly deserted him and went out promiscuously on a hunt to pick a competitor to pitch against him. The breaking of the anti-C.R. clique provides the real test of character for Mr. Prakasam’s parliamentary leadership.

In Tamil Nadu, organizational strategy has for the time being put great political power in the hands of persons who cannot properly be described as leaders of the people. They have been using it mischievously to secure the ousting of the real leaders of the people, so that they themselves may step into their places. Some of these have been poisoning the Congress atmosphere by spreading rank communalism and comporting themselves in fact as though they were little better than Justicites in Congress garb. No camouflage, and not all the varied incarnations of the sedulously propagated anti-C.R. spirit can disguise the fact that in any free gathering of Tamil public, all opponents of C.R. put together have little hope of combating his influence and the esteem in which he is held. He is the leader of Tamil Nadu no less than Prakasam is the leader of Andhra Desa.

In a composite province like Madras, no Ministry that ignores C.R. can avoid being rickety. Ability to divest himself of every vestige of confidence in the promoters of the anti-C.R. spirit is another test of character for Mr. Prakasam. While he has grit, courage, calm imperturbability in a crisis, fellow feeling for common people, capacity for defiance against dictatorial impositions of authority however mighty, and a certain heartiness of manner and temperament endearing him to people, he lacks the machinery of reliable and loyal lieutenants requisite for effective capture of administrative power. Some of his closest adherents of years have in recent days been offering their loyalty for sale to the highest bidder in every market, and now that he has won, may be expected to rally back to him with pretences of unbroken attachment and corresponding claims for reward. The calibre of Mr. Prakasam’s government will depend on how he will immediately prove his ability to resist these importunities.

Out of the forces conducive to disruption and disintegration that infest the new legislature, making it a cockpit of anti-C.R. illwill and a body not reflecting so much as outraging public opinion, it is Mr. Prakasam’s responsibility now to evolve an efficient instrument for orderly and trustworthy discharge of the duties of administration, not anyhow chaotically, but in conformity with standards of rectitude, a progressive outlook and the urgent needs of the times. The codified substance of immediate requirements may be put in these terms:

No truck with communalists, Justicites (open or disguised) proved opportunists, black marketers smuggled into the legislature, and members of the anti-C.R. clique of Harijan notoriety.

No pampering of provincial linguistic sentiment. No Prime Minister can indulge in preferences based on linguistic and other affinities without getting excluded from the trust and confidence of other elements excluded by them.

The Rajaji group in the legislature is the only section of it that has acted with dignity. It has honoured the counsels of the High Command and stood above the wrangles and intrigues of recent days. It contains the largest number of men of sterling worth. The valuable contribution it is capable of making to the credit of the Government should be taken full advantage of if poverty of talent is not to devolve on the new Cabinet to be formed.

Services rendered for attainment of electioneering success should not be taken as basis for political reward. It should be treated as the essence of integrity that political reward should go to none but the worthy. All obligations of a personal nature should be ignored, and standards of scrupulous judgment and action conceived solely in the public interest should be elevated to supremacy.

The new Premier should eschew like the very devil all contacts with rich wrong-doers in trouble who want to be pulled out, and powerful commercial and industrial groups willing to pay any price for Government support for their plans of aggrandizement.—(SWATANTRA April 27, 1946) K H A S A.