Mr. Shastri’s Objection to Congress Resolution.

WE have in our leading article referred to that part of the interview granted by him to a New India representative, in which Mr. Shastri expressed his disappointment with the Congress resolution on the Government of India Act. In a subsequent passage, Mr. Shastri explained the ground for this disappointment. “The first essential for working the new Reform Act,” he said, “is to get the people to enter upon the new era in a proper spirit. I am afraid the Congress resolution does not help us very much in that direction. It seems to concentrate rather on the further stages than on the full utilisation of the Reform Act. Parts A, B and C of the resolution occupied disproportionate space.” Our partial agreement with Mr. Shastri is confined only to his last statement. We do think that part B ought to have been so expanded as to make it clear that the Government of India Act, though unsatisfactory, was an advance upon present conditions and a real step towards full responsible government. But subject to this observation, we fail to see why the Congress resolution should not be regarded as a substantially correct lead to the country. Mr. Shastri’s objection that the Congress resolution seems to concentrate rather on the further stages than on the full utilisation of the Act is clearly based on a misapprehension. Are not the two in this case intermingled? Is it possible to utilise the Act without having “the further stages” constantly in our mind? Is not the process of conscious evolution—and surely Mr. Shastri would not have of the day — throughout dominated by the consciousness of the end, and is it not the fact that the stronger, the more vivid and the more pervading the consciousness of the end, the surer and speedier is the process? On the other hand, who among us really believes that “the further stages” can be obtained without our fully utilising the Reform Act?

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