THE CONGRESS CONSTITUTION

YESTERDAY we published the report of the Sub-Committee which was appointed at Amritsar to prepare a draft constitution for the Congress. Some of the more important changes proposed by the Sub-Committee have already been commented upon in these columns. The limitations of the number of delegates to 3,000, at the rate of one delegate for 1,00,000 of the population, the making of a district the unit for the purpose of returning delegates, the provision that each district should elect delegates in proportion to the number of inhabitants in it, cities not included in districts being treated as district units, the reconstitution of Congress Provinces on a linguistic basis, the reduction in the strength of the All-India Congress and General Secretaries who shall be ex officio members, the electorates for this purpose being no longer Provincial Congress Committees, but all delegates elected to the Congress for a year, the abolition of the present subjects committee, its functions being assigned to the All-India Congress Committee, and lastly the provision for the appointment consisting of the President, the General Secretaries and seven members of the All-India Congress Committee, all these have our general support, subject, of course, to reservation as regards details. What does occur to us, however, is that these changes, while they will tend to make the Congress a more business-like body and will make for more equitable representation of the Provinces at the Congress, will not necessarily make the Congress more representative than it is. It is all right to assign one delegate to 1,00,000 of the population. But how many of these 1,00,000 people are to actually take part is the election? We are told that it is the district committees who are to elect the delegates. But who are to constitute the district committees themselves?

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