India for Indians: Enlarged EditionDas, Chitta Ranjan
History
India for Indians: Enlarged Edition
Das, Chitta Ranjan
India -- Politics and government -- 1919-1947
Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen. I have the honour to support
the resolution which has been placed before you. Brother delegates, at
the very outset I desire to refer to the song to which you have just
listened; it is a song of the glory and victory of India. We stand here
to-day on this platform for the glory and victory of India, (Cheers)
and I urge you that amidst the many discussions which have taken place
on the form of the resolution, you should not forget the essential idea
which runs through it and which stands behind it. It is a resolution
which has for its object the growth and the development of the great
Indian nation. We are all agreed about that. The question is how to
bring that about. Gentlemen, the Bengal ideal has been presented to
you to-day by my friend, Babu Bipin Chandra Pal. I accept that ideal
and if I thought that there was anything in this resolution which was
inconsistent with that ideal, I should not have supported it. I do
not think there is anything in this resolution which goes against
the ideal which Bengal has unanimously declared by its resolution at
the Bengal Provincial Conference. What is that ideal? That ideal is
firstly, Provincial Autonomy _viz._, that the Government of India must
have its sphere demarcated, its functions defined; all other functions
should belong to the Provincial governments of the particular province.
Gentlemen, is that an ideal which is foreign to that resolution? I ask
you to look into it carefully. I find within it a careful demarcation
of the sphere of the Government of India and those of the Provincial
governments. Therefore, so far as that ideal is concerned I do not
think that this is at all inconsistent with the resolution which I
have the honour to support. Now gentlemen, what is the next point in
the ideal of Bengal? And that is: that the functions of the Executive
Government must be made subordinate to the Legislative Council which
would represent the wishes of the people of the particular province.
Now is there anything in this resolution which goes against that? It
may be that Bengal has provided for that in one particular way and
in this resolution you have provided for that in another way, but
so far as the ideal is concerned, I say that there is absolutely no
difference between that of Bengal and that which is shadowed in this
resolution (Hear, hear.) You say in this resolution that the power of
the purse should be in the hands of the Legislature. Now, gentlemen,
just pause for one moment to think what that means. Let us take it
that your scheme is accepted by the Government. What does that mean?
That means that the Executive must be obedient to the Legislature. If
they do not obey the commands of the Legislature, the Legislature will
say we stop the supplies. It may be said that the British Parliament
will never grant you that; but are we considering that at present?
When they make a definite pronouncement as to what they are willing to
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