The Way To Real Progress And Good Government

The Swatantra Party's draft election manifesto as passed by the party’s National Executive reads thus:

“After nearly twenty years of Independence, the country is today in shambles in all spheres of national life: In the political sphere, the Constitution has been repeatedly violated and amended. Fundamental Rights are now no more than merely a chapter in the Constitution; and democratic institutions have so often been subverted that democracy itself is not in danger. In the economic sphere, the tempo of industrial and commercial activity is at a low ebb and agricultural development has been shamefully neglected and hurt. Spiralling prices added to mercilessly high taxation have raised the cost of living. The burden of internal and external debt is crushing. Devaluation, which is proof of insolvency in external finance no less than deficit financing is in internal finance, has made the situation worse because of failure to take the necessary follow-up measures. In the sphere of national unity; as a result of the Congress Party’s patronage of class conflicts, the country and the people are so divided that national unity, achieved in 1947, is fast disappearing. Linguistic controversies, water disputes and territorial claims and counter-claims, on the one hand, and disputes among landlords, tenants, students, teachers, employers and employees present a dismal picture of a country divided against itself. In the sphere of public morality, bribery and corruption, inefficiency and favouritism, have become an established way of life. The greed for money and power and the scramble for jobs have become the main motivating forces. The moral decay visible in the older generation is creating a spirit of dangerous cynicism amongst the youth of the country. In the sphere of international policy, there is no Wise discrimination between friends and foes, but only a continuous prattling about non-alignment and co-existence, peace and disarmament, in collaboration with nations who are themselves openly committed to aggression to gain their own ends. No attention is paid to mutual defence in South­East Asia, so vital to the defence of India against aggression by China and Pakistan. Two decades of uninterrupted rule by the Congress Party have produced this state of affairs. That Party has demonstrated beyond doubt its total unfitness to continue in power. There are some who argue, out of despair, that the only solution would be more concentration of power and further curtailing of the citizen’s freedom. The Swatantra Party emphatically rejects all suggestions of this kind, whether expressed or camouflaged. It believes that a solution does not lie in the direction of dictatorship or Statism in the name of socialism. The Party believes that only when the creative potential of individual endeavour and enterprise is released, developed and harnessed for the common good within the restraining framework of good government can there be significant moral and material progress. Against this background the Swatantra Party presents this Manifesto for public acceptance. The path to recovery from the present chaotic conditions created by the Congress Party’s unbroken rule for twenty years will be hard and uphill. It will take time to undo the grave mischief caused by the ideological confusions and the extravagant Plans, superimposed under the desire to monopolise power and to perpetuate it. These difficulties must and will be overcome.”

The main issue in the General Elections is the liquidation of a policy which has failed. This issue should not be befogged by assessment of different personalities in the Congress as if it were only a question who is to dominate in the ruling party. The policy of deceiving the poor and enriching favourites by creating monopolies for them must cease. Putting A, B or C in charge of policy that should be liquidated makes no difference to the people but only to the favourites.

After covering the Party’s programme in detail in fifty odd paragraphs in Parts II and III, the Manifesto concludes thus:

“We stand in sharp contrast to the Congress which vies with the Communists in the pursuit of power for the party as against the people by vesting economic power in the State. While recklessly pursuing ruinous economic policies, the Congress Party has sought to explain away its failures by hunting for scapegoats, such as the farmer and the trader, the goldsmith and other self-employed persons, the industrialist, the businessman and the banker. The Congress Party has sought to conceal its guilt at having lost national terntories by hollow assurances to recover them. And they are now reverting to the well established pattern of seeking to win the next General Elections by abuse of authority, ‘by bribery and corruption,’ by false promises of a promised land to come twenty years hence, and by threats of reprisals against the supporters of their opponents. Against all this, the Swatantra Party offers to the free choice of the voters the alternative of a constructive programme harnessed to the basic principles of enlightened self-advancement which for centuries has stirred men and women to their highest and noblest effort. Restrained and enlightened self-interest at the individual level and a service purpose at the State level are, we believe, the only sure foundation for progress in all fields. If the Swatantra Party is returned to power in any State or at the Centre and invited to form a Government it will be prepared to look outside the ranks of the party for the best talent available in the country and so provide the most capable government that it can. Above all, the Swatantra Party seeks to restore in the body politic the Gandhian principle of giving first priority to the rule of Dharma as the true basis for enduring moral progress and material prosperity.”