My time and that of co-workers is largely taken up in wading through complaints about corruption among Congressmen. The latest typical letter received is from a Bombay Congressman:
Tripuri Congress delegates' elections took place last Sunday in Bombay. The voting was to start at 8 a. m. in the morning. I reached Congress House at nearly 8.45 a. m., but to my consternation I found that I had already been impersonated in the short span of forty-five minutes. Scores of others had the same experience. I tried to trace the source, and though (as expected) I could not trace the miscreant I found that this impersonation business was regularly organized and practised on a mass scale as soon as the polling had started. Naturally those who came even half an hour late were disappointed, they having been impersonated meanwhile.
Many suggestions have been made to you to abate this nuisance, but in my humble opinion unless we introduce the system of asking the prospective voters to produce their membership cards to be duly stamped by the issuing officers before slips are issued to them, nothing will do the trick . . . .
The correspondent's suggestion is quite sound. I should have thought that every voter had to produce an identification card before being allowed to register his vote.
My purpose, however, in reproducing the correspondent's letter is not merely to draw attention to the impersonation in Bombay and the method of dealing with it. The letter is a pointer. Besides impersonation there is the wholesale tampering with the Congress registers which contain bogus names. These registers have as much value as a box containing counterfeit coins though it is claimed to contain rupees. Strife at Congress elections is becoming a common occurrence.The indiscipline of Congressmen is on the increase everywhere. Many of them make irresponsible, even violent, speeches. Many fail to carry out instructions. Bihar is a notable example. Kisans of Bihar are supposed to be Congressmen. Their leaders are Congressmen. Bihar Ministers live in perpetual dread of kisan risings and kisan marches. Only two days ago I had a wire from Khandesh of a contemplated march to the Collector's bungalow by kisans headed by a well known Congress worker. Such instances can be multiplied.
Rome's decline began long before it fell. The Congress, which has been nursed for over fifty years by the best brains of the country, will not fall the moment it has begun to decay. It need not fall at all, if the corruption is handled in time.
In my opinion the greatest work before the Congress will be to deal with this fourfold process of decay. We are yet far from our goal. We shall be no nearer it if we are not sure of our means and their meaning and implications. When the real time comes we shall be found wanting. If I was called upon to lead, say, an army of civil resisters, I should be unable to shoulder the burden. This is a big admission to make. But I should be guilty of cowardice and worse if I did not make it. Though there is non-violence enough among the masses, there is not enough among those who have to organize the masses. Even as a banker cannot run a bank if he has nothing in his chest, so can a general not lead a battle if he has no soldiers on whom he can rely implicitly.
Let no Congressman blame me for thinking aloud. Though I am not in the Congress, I have not ceased to be of it. Congressmen still expect me to give the call when in my opinion the time for action has come. What is more, if God so wills it, I feel I have enough strength and energy in me to lead a battle much more strenuous than any I have fought. But there are Saharas in the way. I have mentioned one which Congressmen can see, touch and handle. The Congress would not be harmed by my having lifted the curtain and exposing our uglinesses to the public gaze. It would be harmed if knowing the truth I hid it from the public.
Out of the present condition of the Congress I see nothing but anarchy and red ruin in front of the country. Shall we face the harsh truth at Tripuri?
