MUNICH AGREEMENT or POLITICAL BLACKMAIL?

The idea of calling upon all Congress Provincial Government to resign because the Thakore of Rajkot has not conformed to his undertaking with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel or because the authorities at Jaipur do not want the presence of Mr. Jamnalal Bajaj within their borders, recalls the delightful Elia Essay about the Chinaman who first discovered that pork was a delicacy. Neither of these potentates is under any obligation to acknowledge the excellence of parliamentary government as the panacea for all the ills they and their subjects are suffering from. The Viceroy, no doubt, is anxious to have the provincial part of the Government of India Act to continue to function under their present Governments as it provides the strongest argument in favour of and the best hope for the acceptance of the Federal part. But there is a limit beyond which he can not go even for this purpose. Otherwise, it would be better to scrap the whole Act and pass another handing over the whole Act and pass another handing over the whole administration, British India and the States, to the Congress hierarchy. The wobbling methods of the Government of India have created confusion all round. The are unfair both to the States and to British India outside the Congress. They are unfair to the Congress also. Though the leaders do not seem to realise it the position of the Congress in the light of the frequent appeals to the Viceroy for intervention is exactly that of Indian States which also look to him for protection. Unless there is a "Munich Agreement" between Lord Linlithgow and Gandhiji, these frequent calls upon his powers as Crown representative to intervene at the threat of withdrawing the Congress ministries from eight provinces looks unpleasantly like political blackmail. One advantage of Mr. Subhash Bose's taking over control of the Congress would be to get rid of the camouflage which obscures the real issues of politics at the present day.

Source : Indian Social Reformer - 11-02-1939