SCHEME OF SWARAJ

The Tribune, Lahore Daily, (Indipendent)

If we do want new body, and for our part we have said repeatedly that we do, it is because just at present the Congress is not fully representative of the country as a whole whether as regards the definiteness of its expressed ideal or as regards the methods on which it relies for the realisation of that ideal. Undoubtedly, as Mr. Patel pointed out, we all want the same thing, but that is a very different thing from saying that the country as a whole subscribes to the first ARticle of the Congress Creed as that Article is at present expressed. This in fact, is and has always been our strongest objection to the change in the Congress Creed. As regards methods the position is even worse, The liberals are totally opposed to non-co-operation, ad even the Independents do not believe that by itself and without vital modification it can lead the country to its goal within a measurable distance of time. It is just because this is so that we do want a new body, a body on which, as Pandit Malaviya said, all those who believe in the attainment of dominion self-government as the object of our political endeavour and in peaceful, legitimate and constitutional activity as the sole method by which that object is to be attained, should be represented. Such a body will, speaking broadly, carry out the idea of the Congress as of all other political bodies in the country, but for carrying it out, it will work along lines on which neither the present Congress nor any other body at present existing in the country can work, lines which will represent a synthesis of the cherished  and conflicting ideals and views of all sections of the party of self-government in the country. It will in other words present a common meeting ground for all these bodies for the formulation of a common programme, leaving each of the component units free to carry on its own work in its own way so long as neither the work nor the way is inconsistent with the general work and the general way of the country as a whole.