Recent speeches of some of the leaders of the Congress Party contain a number of admissions and confessions, which are very significant in the context of what happened as a result of the civic elections held sometime ago.

Let us take the speech of Mr. Morarji Desai made at the Gokhale Hall under the auspices of the Madras District Congress Committee. It began with a single admission, and ended with more than one confession;

The admission was a compliment to the people of Madras. Mr. Desai said, he ‘had no doubt that here the people were more aware than in other places, of what was happening, because they had a capacity of understanding things, which is higher than elsewhere’.

As all the speeches made at the Gokhale Hall meeting were mainly concerned with the result of the elections to the Corporation of Madras, in which the Congress Party met with a resounding defeat, we may take it that the Finance Minister of the Government of India was generous and sporting enough to pay a handsome compliment to the enlightened electorate of Madras. For, they really “had a capacity of understanding things, which is higher than elsewhere”. That was why they returned members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in a large majority, and installed a member of this Party in the Mayoral Chair.

We referred to the confessions made by Mr. Morarji Desai. They may broadly be summarized under two heads. One is corruption, and the other is disunity in Congress ranks.

A press report in one of their English dailies says, “Dealing with the allegations of corruption, Mr. Desai said that there was corruption, and he did not deny it.” What a confession from the Finance Minister of the Indian Union government! No wonder people did not want to vote for the continuance of corruption.
Mr. Desai’s confession, though sincere, was not whole-hearted. It was apologetic. He said that “it was not a fact that corruption today had increased greatly since the days of the British”. We do not know whether the Finance Minister’s defence can be substantiated by facts and figures. On the contrary, there are many things to prove that corruption and Congress go hand in hand, that they have not merely been going on like this for many years in a happy, go-lucky fashion, but they have actually been progressing with rapid strides in the recent past towards an intolerable and unbearable extreme of naked and unashamed gluttonous corruption.

If we can draw up two graphs to indicate the progressive increase in the extent of corruption, one for the pre-Independence era, and the other for the post-Independence period, the rising lines would reveal a state of affairs contrary to what the Indian Finance Minister would have the public believe. The pre-Independence graph’s line will end in the Tilak Swaraj Fund of one crore and twenty-five lakhs of rupees, the disappearance of which no one could satisfactorily explain, down to this day! The post-Independence graph has necessarily to deal with many, many crores. There are so many dams and so many drains, so many Ministers and so many Deputy Ministers, so many permits, licenses, contracts et hoc genus omne, that it is very difficult, practically impossible, to work out how many crores have gone down the throat of the Congress ‘Bahasura’.

But Mr. Morarji Desai says that corruption has not increased greatly since the British left India. It might have increased, according to him, to a small extent, but there has been no great increase. We will depute Sherlock Holmes to check on this limited confession of Mr. Morarji Desai. Meanwhile, may we offer our congratulations to the party in power for maintaining the status quo of corruption?

The other confession of the Congress leader is that there is disunity in their ranks. How can there be unity when there is a regular scramble for office and the spoils of office? The wonder is, not that there is disunity, but that there is not more and more of it. Disunity is an offshoot of corruption, and if Congress wants unity, it must give up corruption. It cannot have both.

References were made to this problem of corruption, not only by Mr. Morarji Desai, but also by Mr.C. Rajagopalachariar and Mr. M. Masani a few days ago. Addressing a public meeting at the Vivekananda College, Mylapore, under the auspices of the Indian Council of Public Affiairs, both these ex-leaders of the Congress Party bewailed the prevailing state of affairs to such an extent that they wanted to mend it – by starting a new party!

The Vivekananda College meeting is also significant, inasmuch as it has underlined the admission and confessions of the Gokhale Hall meeting, though in an entirely different way. For, the attempt of former leaders of the Congress Party to start another party is an open and straightforward admission that the Congress has failed, and an unmistakable confession that they are thoroughly helpless to change, improve, or transform the Congress organisation from its present state of corrupt rottenness into that of a clean and healthy political organization working for the real good of the mass of the people.

Mr. Masani says that after twelve years of Congress rule, that people have become “disillusioned” – they “saw Minister and others getting preferential treatment, a disproportionate growth in the size of the administrative services and increasing corruption. Hence, people were looking forward to the coming up of a new leadership devoid of dogma, which could give a realistic and practical leadership.” Mr.C.Rajagopachariar lashed Congress policy and leadership in his own unique and inimitable way.

But the question is ‘will the Conservative Party or Swatantra Party or whatever old or new name the disappointed and disgruntled Congress leaders may give to their venture, solve the problem?’

If the country wants a party devoid of dogma, a party with a realistic and practical outlook, a party that wants to conserve all that is best and glorious in South Indian culture and progress on proper lines, a party that would oppose the Congress without fear or favour, a party that has already proved its credentials as an opposition and has demonstrated its reliability as a responsible alternative Government of the future, such a party is Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

The city elections have proved that the people look up to the D.M.K. as the real opposition to the Congress, and an alternative to it. So far as South India is concerned, there is no need to waste time or energy in starting a new party. Wisdom and statesmanship can do no better than strengthen an organization of this kind, which stands for ordered progress and advancement of the people. If admissions and confessions can do any real good, they must help in a sensible move a consolidate what has already been achieved. Scratching what will ultimately prove to be hard serve no real purpose, and do very little good to anybody.

(Editorial - 07-06-1959)