Dissension in India

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33111, 29 December 1972, Page 9

Dissension in India

(N.Z P A -Reuter—Copyright; , CALCUTTA. Dec. 28.1 Mrs Gandhi’s Con-; gress Government wasj warned yesterday of I “great disillusionment

with the Administration,” and that this would be accentuated unless reform programmes were implemented with greater urgency.

The warning came in speeches by delegates at the party’s annual conference in

.Calcutta during a debate on i the general domestic political ■ situation.

The speakers, ranging from Cabinet Ministers and members of Parliament to village-level officials, agreed that the state of the party

was reverting to what it was just before the Congress Party split of 1969. Mr Krishan Kant, a member of Parliament and one of the leading radicals within the party, said: “A new tribe of manipulators and courtiers

have managed to install themselves near the centre of power, and there is little hope of progress until these elements are removed.” A general resolution before the conference called for determined and vigorous action by the Government to fulfil its promises, and to “vitiate distress caused by shortages of essential commodities, rising prices, and unemployment.” Corrupt practices in elections to party posts came under attack. Allegations were also made that Congress Chief Ministers of various Indian states were delib-! erately holding up the intro-1 duction of legislation on land! ceilings and nationalisation! of the wholesale trade in • foodgrains. The Minister of Communi-;

cations (Mr H. N. Bahuguna) agreed that “exploiters” would have to be weeded out from the party, and that it would be necessary to watch that they did not get in again through the back door. One speaker said that it was illustrative of the fact that Congressmen were not serious about fulfilling their obligations that many of them no longer wore khadi — clothes made of hand-spun cotton advocated by Mahatma Gandhi as the Congress Party’s uniform. Polling for election to the important Congress Party’s working committee of 10, which formulates party policy, is not yet conclusive. Normally, the composition of the working committee is settled behind closed doors, and the elections are a formality. This year, 33 members, some of them implacable foes, are contesting the seats.