SWATANTRA—AUGUST 9,
1947
THE removal of C.R. from the Union Cabinet apparently for
elevating him to the Governorship of West Bengal, actually places him in cold
storage for the time being. It does not seem to be a sound practice to impose
leaders of one province as Governors in others. For one thing, it violates the
spirit of the constitution which has provided for Governors to be elected
directly by the people on adult suffrage. Are the people of any province ever
likely to choose their Governors from the candidates of another? Interim
appointments should conform as near as possible to the pattern of government
and administrative personnel that may reasonably be expected to take shape when
the new constitution comes into full operation. Supposing the High Command had
selected as Governors persons likely to be confirmed in the same office even
under the impending suffrage, and supposing in due course they actually get so
confirmed, what a feather it would be in the cap of the selectors. They would
have shown themselves capable, then, of voluntary adjustments to the authentic
realities of public opinion and established their mettle as democrats and won
honour as such.
* * *
Perhaps the repugnance of the
High Command to the whole lot of Andhra leaders as such has landed them in the
present morass of having to pick Governors from anywhere except the actual territory
to be governed by them. Tamil leaders stand no higher in the regard of the
central Congress dictatorship, but it has been given to C.R. alone to break the
North India monopoly of control over all-India affairs and establish himself
squarely and firmly in the highest Congress conclave on equal terms with its
other members and on a footing other than patronage. He stands as a symbol to
demonstrate that, in the matter of contribution to federal leadership, Madras
is not completely wiped out, of the Congress map.
* * *
If Governorships were to go by
election now and C.R. were to stand, he will be confronted in Tamil Nadu with
the communal forces that are being violently egged on under Omandurian
inspiration. None will vote for him in Andhra. The whole of Andhra is a boiling
cauldron of rage over the dethronement of Prakasam for the establishment of a
Premier like Omandur. Had the present Ministry acquitted itself creditably and
improved conditions of life for the people, it might have hoped in course of
time to quieten the public resentment with which its advent was greeted. But
even its most energetic protagonist has come on record condemning it as in no
way better than its predecessor. It has brought the food position to a
desperate muddle. Corruption is on the
increase. The strain of sheer existence is being made unbearable for millions,
while the Ministry is digging itself deeper daily into the mire of a hatred
cult of communal colour, hoping thereby to divert attention from its own
incompetence and futility. But the mounting distress of the multitude can
neither be fed on manufactured communal rancour nor put off with tactics.
* * *
The feuds of recent months have
not led to any good. While ministerial energies are being utilized to the full
in a strenuous struggle just to survive, there is no chance of any surplus
being left over for constructive effort over measures of tangible benefit to
people. All this strain would be at once removed if peace could be
re-established between the anti-Prakasamites and the ex-Premier. There seems no
way out of the tangled mess of present-day politics in the province until the
enormous goodwill and popular backing that belongs to Sri Prakasam is converted
into an asset of Government instead of being allowed to confront it resentfully
as now. The most natural way of effecting such a conversion would have been to
make him Governor. He is anyhow marked for the Governorship of Andhra after the
formation of the province, should he choose to stand for it, since under adult
suffrage no one would have the ghost of a chance for competing against him
successfully in that area. He certainly deserves as well at the hands of the
Congress High Command as Pakwasa or Jairam das Dowlatram. Rarely have I ever
come across such a fury of anger as is now burning in the heart of the common
man of Andhra over the Congress High Command’s studied neglect and insult of
leaders held in honour by him, and especially Sri Prakasam. One of them, a
loyal Congressman of repute who went to jail everytime the mandate came, burst
out the other day, thus: “For seventeen years I have been paying four annas to
the Congress regularly. But now I am disgusted with the ways of the High
Command. For the first time in seventeen years I have withheld my subscription
to the Congress this year.”
The old empire that the Congress
had over the allegiance of the masses is being lost to it; and great as Sardar
Vallabyhbhai Patel’s services were to the Congress in time past, his handling
of affairs over the past two years has done much harm to the credit and
influence of the Congress with common people in general. C.R.’s relegation to
West Bengal is an ugly move in a threatened process of power-consolidation at
the Centre, with the Sardar holding all the strings. Sir R.K. Shanmukham
Chetti’s talents are undeniable and deserve to be made accessible in some
consultative form; but not, as a Minister of State. Ministerships should come
as nobody’s gift. With C.R. got rid of, all that is needed for the Central
Executive to be brought into the hollow of the Sardar’s hand is that Nehru
should be made President and Rajendra Prasad sent to Behar. These moves too
were not left unattempted, according to report. It is comforting to be informed
that the Mahatma stepped in before too late to counter them.—(August 9, 1947) S A K A.
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