The Congress was Despised, Not Loved After Independence
How the Nehruvian Congress Party systematically subverted the freedom that India had achieved after enormous sacrifices
ON 15 AUGUST 1947, THE CONGRESS PARTY inherited a fragment of the vast colonial British Empire and wasted no time in transforming it into a fascist state two years before a nominally independent India formally adopted a Constitution.
Here is a bird’s eye-view of the situation barely eight months after India achieved “independence.”
The teeming and hungry legions of phoney Gandhian patriots, freedom and social reformers had overnight transformed into traders in treachery and merchants of patriotism occupying high ministerial berths. It was the outbreak of an epidemic of epic proportions especially in the provinces (states). These sudden, opportunistic ministers who had never eaten two square meals a day now began grabbing everything in sight, their illicit acquisitions limited only by the limitations of their skullduggery. They were friends with black-marketers, bootleggers, pimps, and every wealthy lawbreaker. Less than a decade ago, they travelled by foot or tram. Now they were travelling in fancy Buicks, Packards, and Cadillacs. Some changed as many as five cars each year. American cars were in great demand among this class of Gandhian patriots who loudly and publicly upheld the ban on British cars. But there was a catch even here. Import laws on automobiles were stringent and not surprisingly, only these patriotic Congress ministers could magically import them at controlled prices. It was a tidy racket. Congressmen who were not ministers also made a killing in a different fashion. Using their clout, they would buy these American cars at the controlled prices, keep them for some time and then resell them in the second hand market at double the price. Needless, all such transactions were executed in cash. The favoured denomination was ₹ 100 notes.
We repeat: this was just eight months after “independence.”
Konda Venkatappaiah's Letter
Does the name Konda Venkatappaiah sound familiar? He was a full-blooded Gandhian. One of those millions who were better than Gandhi himself. The selfless patriots and nation-builders who gave up everything…family, job, career, suffered jail time, and largely lived in penury following an ideal which Gandhi self-righteously preached but practiced only by violating it. Konda Venkatappaiah was a truly distinguished Congressman from the Andhra Provincial unit who was greatly respected in the party and had a good rapport with the alleged Mahatma. He was eighty years old when he wrote this letter to Gandhi a few days before his assassination:
Swaraj was the only absorbing passion which goaded men and women to follow your leadership. But now that the goal has been reached ALL MORAL RESTRICTIONS HAVE LOST THEIR POWER ON MOST OF THE FIGHTERS IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE. . . .THE SITUATION IS GROWING MORE INTOLERABLE EVERY DAY. THE PEOPLE HAVE BEGUN TO SAY THAT THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT WAS MUCH BETTER. THEY ARE EVEN CURSING THE CONGRESS. [Capitalised]
This then is the other Great Myth: of the alleged, unquestionable goodwill that the Congress supposedly enjoyed, a reason for its repeated electoral successes. As this letter and hundreds of other proofs indicate, the opposite is true. By 1949, notwithstanding Gandhi’s tragic death, the Congress was hated more than the British who had colonised India.
Let’s look at another document.
From an unimpeachable, firsthand source. Mohandas Gandhi’s paper, Harijan. It was now edited by Gandhi’s direct disciple, K.G. Mashruwala. Its cover story dated 3 October 1948 sounded a stern warning against Congressmen who were brazenly encashing their only calling card: “sacrifice” during the freedom struggle. He drew special attention to a new scheme: providing special facilities like admission to educational institutions for students who had taken part in various political movements of only the Congress Party. He deplored using “political service as a short cut to scholarship.”
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