Swarajya, February 17, 1962
Between ourselves, honest voter, these private monopolies created by the pernicious system of permits, licences, quotas and controls (to be extended now even to foreign capital which voluntarily comes into the private sector) make the Congress Party's rich friends richer, and the poor poorer. It is a close conspiracy; we have a battle between money and liberty, between dharma and atheism, between freedom and communism clothed in Congress robes.
The Congress Party is making desperate efforts to see that no effective Opposition party comes into being as a result of this year’s general elections in India. To save parliamentary democracy which the Constitution of India was framed to establish, in order that what has amounted in reality to one-party rule, with a regimented economy, may not in course of time become absolute dictatorship, people should vote for the Swatantra Party at the ensuing elections.
The Congress Party is doing everything to destroy individual freedom. Socialist economy is the opposite of individual freedom. Socialism is put forward as a means to attain welfare. Countries which have tried it have found that it does not work. If the people of India desire to achieve material progress without losing the most valuable element in national happiness, viz., a sense of individual freedom, they should vote for Swatantra.
The Congress, which is the ruling party, is in possession of all the facilities which a regimented Welfare State provides for perpetuation of its rule. This is dangerous. To vote for the Congress Party now and give it another period for consolidation of its power would be doubly dangerous. The question at the elections is not about Mr. Nehru, but whether the autocratic regime of the Congress Party should not be curbed. To vote for the Congress Party now is to sanction the aggravation of its autocracy and the redoubling of the pace of its corruption.
The Constitution has been amended with the assistance of the ruling party’s present majority quite a number of times, each time the courts declared the expropriatory laws to be invalid, they being opposed to the fundamental rights guaranteed in the original Constitution. Basic rights have been whittled down so greatly that the ruling party now holds a sword of terror over all owners of land or other property and businessmen in every field. The State can put its machinery into motion, so that land may be taken away by the State with no appeal to court to contest the fairness or adequacy of the compensation awarded by the Government. The Swatantra Party is opposed to these lawless laws. It is not opposed to the reform of land tenures or giving of relief to tenants but seeks to resist lawless expropriations under the powers taken by the amendments of the Constitution. The party seeks to restore the Constitution to its original form which guaranteed the freedom of citizens to follow occupations of their choice and solemnly affirmed the citizens’ rights to property lawfully acquired. All people believing in civilization, progress and culture based on these fundamental rights of citizens should support and strengthen the Swatantra Party.
The Swatantra Party holds that people who raise food-crops should not be taxed but rewarded and encouraged.
The move for compulsory and semi-compulsory collectivization of peasants’ farms leading to the extinction of individual rights is a move detrimental to production besides being expropriatory.
If the great handloom cottage industry of India is to be saved from being crushed by the mills and a widespread crisis of unemployment averted, the electorate should vote against the Congress and support the Swatantra Party.
To sum up, the Congress has turned away from Gandhiji and switched over to Marx. Every one who desires progress in the framework of freedom should support the Swatantra Party. Those few who think it would be good for them to give unlimited power to officials and ministers may vote for the Congress Party and for its Permit-Licence-Control-Raj; but those who stand for only a minimum of State-power and maximum freedom for the individual citizen should vote for the Swatantra Party.
The Congress Party has been in office for fifteen years but has not given to the people good government. Gigantism and Facadism are the characteristics of this party’s policies, and these have led to crushing taxation, soaring prices and hopeless indebtedness to foreign nations. The Swatantra Party stands for prudence~ discretion and reduction of taxation. The Congress Party has established a bad convention of interference by members and local bosses of the ruling party in the day-to-day administration of the country. This has led to injustice, graft and misrule. The Swatantra Party is opposed to this practice of political pressure to divert the course of just administration. The administrative machinery should be free from political pressures and there should be an administrative tribunal, as in France, to set right injustices that cannot be taken to the ordinary courts. Good government can be established in India and a bulwark raised against totalitarianism, only if the people vote in sufficient numbers for the Swatantra Party.
The vote is a gun in your hands to be used in defence of freedom, democracy and dharma. Do not let it lie unused. Do not sell it away for a mess of pottage. He who seeks to buy it is a traitor to democracy and has thereby demonstrated his unfitness to sit in the legislature.
