A Reply To Jawaharlal Nehru

Mr. Nehru came to Madras on Tuesday with all the paraphernalia of the Prime Minister of India and attempted in his speech to answer my oft-repeated charges; he made counter-charges against me of speaking in anger and in the confusion of mind caused by unaccountable anger. I am grateful for the respect he continues to have for me. He wants me to say precisely what I want and paint the picture of India as I desire it to be. The Swatantra manifesto answers this challenge and not even adverse newspapers have found it wanting in definiteness or clarity. But as Mr. Nehru has had no time to read it, here is my picture.

I want an India clear of the atmosphere of fear in which it is now enveloped, where honest men engaged in the difficult tasks of production or trade can carry on their occupation without fear of ruin at the hands of officials, ministers and party bosses.

I want an India where talent and energy can find scope for play without having to cringe and obtain special individual permission from officials and ministers, and where their efforts will be judged by the open market in India and abroad.

I want the dense permit-licence-fog not to sit on us. I want Statism to go and Government reduced to its proper functions.

I want the inefficiency of public management to go where the competitive economy of private management can look after affairs.

I want the corruptions of this permit-licence-raj to go.

I want the officials appointed to administer laws and policies to be free from the pressures of the bosses of the ruling party, and gradually restored back to the standards of fearless honesty which they once maintained.

Mr. Nehru says he has not been approached by any permit-seeker. True. But he has an army of 150 ministers under him and numerous professional congressmen busy in this new occupation of assisting men to get quotas and permits.

I want real equal opportunities for all and no private monopolies created by the Permit-Licence-Raj.

I want an India where the peasants are not intimidated or beguiled into giving up their lands for Mr. Nehru to build castles in the air through co-operative farming.

I want security for all owners of property, land or other forms of acquisitions without a Sword of Damocles hanging over them threatening expropriation without payment of just and full compensation as fixed by judicial authorities on correct principles and not according to the dictation of political legislation.

I want the fundamental rights to be restored to their original shape and kept intact.

I want an India where heavy direct and indirect taxes do not prevent the building up of private capital, discouraging enterprise and effort.

I want an India where the budget of the Centre does not cause inflation and soaring prices.

I want an India where the State does not tax for capital investment, making the present generation’s life miserable.

I want the money power of Big Business to be isolated from politics. Democracy is hard to be worked and it should not be ruined by money power and rendered into a simulacrum by expensive elections and Big Business supporting the ruling party with funds in return for privileges or in fear of the State’s regulatory powers.

I want an India where Dharma once again rules the hearts of men, and not greed.

I want the spirit of compassion and benevolence to have free play and not stifled by State schemes of monopolizing all welfare by over-taxation and over-centralization.

I want the State to know its limitations and function in humility and the citizens to realize spirituality through the traditional channels inherited by them in that regard.

All these that I want cannot obviously be realized under Mr. Nehru’s rule as long as he sticks fast to his particular brand of socialism. Hence it is I oppose him and work for the Swatantra Party.

I want a strong party to be in real opposition to the ruling party—whichever party it may be—so that the wheels of democracy may run on the straight road.

In fine, I want the Congress Party’s rule to be substituted in course of time by that of the Swatantra Party and for the present that the ruling party should be in constant dread of being criticized and thrown out of office, and for that purpose that a strong phalanx of Swatantra members should be in Parliament. The hypnosis of an irremovable Congress Government should be removed.

I feel that in the main the present Congress Party is filled all over India by greedy and power-hungry men. If I so feel, am I to suppress my feelings? Should I not express them so that people may see that such a party does not deserve to rule India and control and regulate the affairs of men in a one-party dictatorship?

I use harsh language, because I am disgusted with the ways of the Congress Party and the atmosphere of corruption, fear and flattery that are choking the national spirit. But the Congress Party and its representatives in office do worse than use harsh language; they tell lies—the biggest lie among them being that the Swatantra’ Party is a rich man’s party or that it is not led by me but by big businessmen; that it is a Raja’s party, and so forth; that the nation will be able to repay the mountain-high foreign loan—that we shall produce commodities which, after local consumption, can be exported in sizable quantities and sold abroad to repay the debts, principal and interest.

I want India to regain her moral stature abroad and I do not want our people to be bamboozled into thinking that we have not lost what moral authority we commanded during Gandhiji’s days.