Congress Party Under Strain

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30216, 22 August 1963, Page 12

Congress Party Under Strain

Mr Nehru’s offer to resign the Prime Ministership and return to party management, and mass offers of resignations by Ministers in the central and state governments, are unmistakable signs that something is seriously amiss in both the Congress Party and Indian politics. Indian politics have never been quite as placid as outsiders have been led to suppose. There have been long and bitter struggles over such issues as the formation of linguistic states; some states have fought against excessive control by the central government, and others about shares of river waters; there has been agitation against the imposition of Hindi as an official language. But the forced resignation of Mr Menon from Mr Nehru’s Cabinet when the Chinese invaded

India was perhaps the only sign of serious political disturbance noticed by the outside world. Now, party disarray and popular discontent have been advertised for all to see. Factional fighting within the Congress Party is one basic cause of discontent; for public uneasiness about corruption and maladministration has fed upon the charges and counter-charges made against each other by leading politicians. A specific example was the resignation of the Minister of Mines and Fuel (Mr Malaviya) after an inquiry by a Supreme Court judge into the activities of a Calcutta mining firm. Within the party an assertive group of leftist politicians has emerged to agitate strongly against what it calls “ right- “ ist reaction within the “party". But though party strife fans popular discontent, the public have enough simple, concrete grievances to exercise them in rising taxes and higher prices. In the recent Budget the Finance Minister (Mr Desai) refused to finance the doubled defence programme by deficit budgeting. Instead. he levied heavy new duties on tobacco and on kerosene, the normal urban cooking fuel; moreover, he introduced a compulsory deposit scheme which brought several million people for the first time into the net of direct taxation. As taxes rise, so do prices. Rice prices in Bombay have risen 20 per cent, since December; without much help from the world price rise, sugar is scarce and about 25 per cent dearer than nine months ago; cloth prices, too, have risen. Opportunities for profiteering have been presented by the state of emergency in which India has existed since China invaded the northern territories. The failure to grow more food grain, production of which has remained about 80 million tons for the last

three years, has been disastrous in a country the population of which is rising by over 2 per cent.—lo million mouths—each year. Defective distribution has led to near-famine in some areas and to trenchant criticism of the Food Ministry. The gainers from all’this public discontent are the Communists and extreme socialists. They have two new sticks with which to beat Mr Nehru and the Congress Party—the agreement to allow the Voice of America the use for a short time of a powerful radio transmitter to be installed in Calcutta, and the invitation to Britain and the United States to participate in air exercises that will train Indians in the use of radar. The overwhelming strength of the Congress Party probably has not been good for the development of parliamentary democracy in India; but if the Congress Party destroyed itself in internecine fighting, India might find itself without a party capable of governing, and this at a time of internal and external challenge. In this light, dramatic gestures by Mr Nehru and his Ministers to revitalise the Congress Party are understandable.