The Congress franchise

WHILE we congratulate the All-India Congress Committee on its changing the Congress franchise in the direction in which the country has with practically one voice demanded its being changed, we cannot congratulate it on the change itself. As we have said already, we have not the smallest objection to the yarn franchise being retained as an alternative to the money franchise. The 2,000 yards of evenly spun yarn, like all other marketable commodities, have a money value, and although there is something to be said against this particular commodity being given exceptional and preferential recognition in the franchise as compared all other commodities produced by Indian labour, some of which are just as important for the nation as yarn, the continued association of the Mahatma with the Congress is fully worth that price. Our only objection to this part of the franchise resolution is its prodigious length, which has had the effect of making the resolution what a resolution on the franchise should not be — extremely cumbrous. Fortunately, so far as the vast majority of prospective members of the Congress are concerned, and this majority will, we feel sure, include a large and growing number of the spinners themselves, this part of the resolution may safely be ignored. With the restoration of the money franchise, the yarn franchise will in due course go to its only appropriate place — the wall. So far as the money franchise itself is concerned, we are pleased that in spite of the strenuous attempts made to place it as high as Rs 5, no doubt to give protection to the yarn franchise, the committee restored the original four-anna subscription.