A common programme

IN a recent article on the present political situation, Lala Lajpat Rai expressed the opinion that in the best interests of the country and because of Swaraj, Swarajists and Liberals should join hands in formulating their minimum demand. The essence of this demand, according to him, is “autonomy in the Provinces subject to the control of the Central Government in certain matters, and the subordination of the Executive to the Legislature in certain departments of the government”, by which he evidently means “in all but certain specified departments.” As regards the actual scheme, Rai suggests that the manifesto issued by the group of Liberal politicians who visited England last year and the minority report of the Reforms Enquiry Committee can well form the basis of discussion and of eventual settlement. It might appear strange that Rai, who does not call himself a Liberal or a Swarajist, should, while asking these parties to join hands, leave out of the group of politicians, to which he has himself been generally supposed to belong — the Independents. As a matter of fact, he does not leave them out. The position he does take up in regard to them is that “there are too many Independents in the country to be of any effective use for political purposes,” that the reason for which many of these Independents have hitherto refrained from joining either of the two principal political parties “does not appear to be very sound,” and that at the next general elections the electorate will have to make up their minds to “reduce the number of Independents to the lowest figure.”