05-21-2004, 12:45 AM
www.newstodaynet.com/guest/0305gu1.htm
<b>The criminality of the Communist party</b>
M V KAMATH
Two points raised in recent times by the Congress party and the Communist Party of India (M) concerning the BJP need to be answered because the lies that these two parties have been spreading have not been adequately met. One is that the Congress is a secular party; the other is that during the Quit India Movement Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then still in histeens had been an informer who had ratted in the Congress and the nationalist movement. A new generation does not know that for years the Muslim League, under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah did not cease from referring to the Congress as a Hindu Party. When, prior to the passing of the Quit India resolution at the historic AICC meeting in August 1942 Mahatma Gandhi noted that there was no room for negotiation between the Congress and the British government and it was going to be an open rebellion, Jinnah's reaction was predictable.
He accused the Congress of aiming at establishing a Hindu raj 'thereby placing the Muslims and other minorities at the mercy of the Congress raj'. (Statesman, 3 July 1942). According to Jinnah's biographer Ayesya Jalai, 'all Jinnah could do was to make much of the Congress threat to Muslim interests, portraying it as a perfidious party no Muslim could ever trust'. Jinnah never conceded the Congress claim that it represented Muslims. As far as Muslims in the country were concerned, Jinnah wanted to be their 'sole spokesman'. Indeed, he wanted parity between the Congress and the Muslim League. No matter how loudly the Congress leaders proclaimed that their's was a national party representing all people, irrespective of their caste, creed, community or religion, Jinnah refused to be convinced and, as independence began to draw near, popular Muslim support to him became stronger. Independence came and suddenly millions of Muslims who had so strongly supported Jinnah and his league realised that they had no place in new-born Pakistan and that if they wanted to survive in India under Congress rule, they had better support the ruling party in toto . It was a volte face that was as self-serving as it was unprincipled. But the large Muslim population realised that it had no alternative. Congress, the party they once hated and reviled, now became the Muslims' saviour. The Congress, of course, was more than happy. Now it could claim that it was truly secular; didn't it have the support of the Muslims as never before? The myth has since continued. Nobody wanted to tell the truth or face it for what it was: phony. After the communal riots in January 1948, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, who had been Congress president, wrote: 'Gandhiji said that he saw Muslims of Delhi being killed before his own eyes. This was being done while his own Vallabhbhai was the Home Minister... Patel had not only failed to give protection to Muslims but he dismissed light-heartedly any complaint made on this account'. The Congress may think that it was secular, but in Muslim and Muslim League eyes, it has always been suspect. Present-day Muslim support of the Congress has an element of hypocrisy about it that needs to be exposed.
What is even more important to expose is the CPM's accusation against Vajpayee that he once served as a 'police informer' following the Quit India agitation. The real traitors are the Communists themselves. This has been proved in great detail by K K Chaudhri in his seminal work entitled Quit India Revolution. In a chapter entitled 'The Betrayal of Freedom Movement' Chaudhuri makes the point that 'on many occasions the Communists were indeed more royalist than even the King of England'. P C Joshi, who was then the Secretary of the party was first to approach the then Home Minister Reginald Maxwell offering him his party's services to betray Congress volunteers. Joshi gave a promise to Maxwell that he will form pro-government (meaning pro-British) guerilla camps in Punjab' to fight the Congress. Indeed, he even went to the extent of submitting to the British government a 120-page report, typed in single space, on the splendid work that his party was doing to disrupt the 1942 movement in province after province, and now it was braving nationalist opposition. Writes Chaudhuri:
'The 120-page report of Joshi on the good work by the CPI to finish off Quit India movement could not have been improved by any other collaborator of the British or by any quisling. Joshi was so anxious to prove the CPI's bona fides and its utility to the British that he claimed that it was doing a better job of stemming the Quit India Movement of denouncing Subhas Bose and leaders of the underground like Jai Prakash, Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyllrao Patwardhan than the government themselves. Joshi argued that communists were more vigilant in tracking down 'saboteurs' that the police and C.I.D. Communists emphatically claimed that they had successfully divided the nationalists and Joshi grandiloquently described Communists as martyrs who were assaulted and vilified by the Congress.... The tone and contents of Joshi's performance reports reveal crystal-clear what CPI had done to sabotage the 1942 movement. 'Furthermore, adds Chaudhrui:
'It should be emphasised that the British did not entice the Communists into betraying the Quit India Movement. In fact the Communists went about systematically and persistently brandishing their usefulness to the government'. Thanks to the Communists Party of India several hundred Congress volunteers, were betrayed to the police; the volunteers were subsequently arrested, jailed, torturing resulting in some deaths. P.C. Joshi considered it his bounden duty and right to attack the policy and activities of Subhas Chandra Bose and Socialists as being treacherous and unpatriotic; even worse, the Communists openly supported the Partition of India. The Communists proclaimed that India was not one nation but 'a collection of several separate nationalities' and that 'the demand for Pakistan is a just and democratic one because Hindus would oppress them in future'. In the face of all this, if the Congress of today wants to accept the support of the CPM, it is its business, but the country must know the real face of Communists.
From the very start they were anti-national and are best described as traitors to the cause of an undivided India. In his overture to Maxwell, Joshi called all opponent of the CPI, including the Congress as 'fascist elements and fifth columnists'. To quote Chaudhuri again: 'He (Joshi) was optimistic and felt impelled to support the (Muslim) league in its demand for the vivisection of India. One of the objects of the propaganda was to stimulate a lively interests in the demand for Pakistan so as to recruit Muslim in their ranks'. Vajpayee can defend himself but the Communists of whatever brand, cannot defend themselves. The sad part of it all is that the BJP does not seem to have any clue as to the role of the Communists and their false claim to secularism. By openly supporting the demand for Pakistan, the Communists have long forfeited the respect of the country. For any party to support the CPM today is an insult to the concept of secularism. The CPM should be isolated.
(The author is a veteran journalist and chief of the Prasar Bharati.
He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan this year.)
<b>The criminality of the Communist party</b>
M V KAMATH
Two points raised in recent times by the Congress party and the Communist Party of India (M) concerning the BJP need to be answered because the lies that these two parties have been spreading have not been adequately met. One is that the Congress is a secular party; the other is that during the Quit India Movement Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then still in histeens had been an informer who had ratted in the Congress and the nationalist movement. A new generation does not know that for years the Muslim League, under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah did not cease from referring to the Congress as a Hindu Party. When, prior to the passing of the Quit India resolution at the historic AICC meeting in August 1942 Mahatma Gandhi noted that there was no room for negotiation between the Congress and the British government and it was going to be an open rebellion, Jinnah's reaction was predictable.
He accused the Congress of aiming at establishing a Hindu raj 'thereby placing the Muslims and other minorities at the mercy of the Congress raj'. (Statesman, 3 July 1942). According to Jinnah's biographer Ayesya Jalai, 'all Jinnah could do was to make much of the Congress threat to Muslim interests, portraying it as a perfidious party no Muslim could ever trust'. Jinnah never conceded the Congress claim that it represented Muslims. As far as Muslims in the country were concerned, Jinnah wanted to be their 'sole spokesman'. Indeed, he wanted parity between the Congress and the Muslim League. No matter how loudly the Congress leaders proclaimed that their's was a national party representing all people, irrespective of their caste, creed, community or religion, Jinnah refused to be convinced and, as independence began to draw near, popular Muslim support to him became stronger. Independence came and suddenly millions of Muslims who had so strongly supported Jinnah and his league realised that they had no place in new-born Pakistan and that if they wanted to survive in India under Congress rule, they had better support the ruling party in toto . It was a volte face that was as self-serving as it was unprincipled. But the large Muslim population realised that it had no alternative. Congress, the party they once hated and reviled, now became the Muslims' saviour. The Congress, of course, was more than happy. Now it could claim that it was truly secular; didn't it have the support of the Muslims as never before? The myth has since continued. Nobody wanted to tell the truth or face it for what it was: phony. After the communal riots in January 1948, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, who had been Congress president, wrote: 'Gandhiji said that he saw Muslims of Delhi being killed before his own eyes. This was being done while his own Vallabhbhai was the Home Minister... Patel had not only failed to give protection to Muslims but he dismissed light-heartedly any complaint made on this account'. The Congress may think that it was secular, but in Muslim and Muslim League eyes, it has always been suspect. Present-day Muslim support of the Congress has an element of hypocrisy about it that needs to be exposed.
What is even more important to expose is the CPM's accusation against Vajpayee that he once served as a 'police informer' following the Quit India agitation. The real traitors are the Communists themselves. This has been proved in great detail by K K Chaudhri in his seminal work entitled Quit India Revolution. In a chapter entitled 'The Betrayal of Freedom Movement' Chaudhuri makes the point that 'on many occasions the Communists were indeed more royalist than even the King of England'. P C Joshi, who was then the Secretary of the party was first to approach the then Home Minister Reginald Maxwell offering him his party's services to betray Congress volunteers. Joshi gave a promise to Maxwell that he will form pro-government (meaning pro-British) guerilla camps in Punjab' to fight the Congress. Indeed, he even went to the extent of submitting to the British government a 120-page report, typed in single space, on the splendid work that his party was doing to disrupt the 1942 movement in province after province, and now it was braving nationalist opposition. Writes Chaudhuri:
'The 120-page report of Joshi on the good work by the CPI to finish off Quit India movement could not have been improved by any other collaborator of the British or by any quisling. Joshi was so anxious to prove the CPI's bona fides and its utility to the British that he claimed that it was doing a better job of stemming the Quit India Movement of denouncing Subhas Bose and leaders of the underground like Jai Prakash, Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyllrao Patwardhan than the government themselves. Joshi argued that communists were more vigilant in tracking down 'saboteurs' that the police and C.I.D. Communists emphatically claimed that they had successfully divided the nationalists and Joshi grandiloquently described Communists as martyrs who were assaulted and vilified by the Congress.... The tone and contents of Joshi's performance reports reveal crystal-clear what CPI had done to sabotage the 1942 movement. 'Furthermore, adds Chaudhrui:
'It should be emphasised that the British did not entice the Communists into betraying the Quit India Movement. In fact the Communists went about systematically and persistently brandishing their usefulness to the government'. Thanks to the Communists Party of India several hundred Congress volunteers, were betrayed to the police; the volunteers were subsequently arrested, jailed, torturing resulting in some deaths. P.C. Joshi considered it his bounden duty and right to attack the policy and activities of Subhas Chandra Bose and Socialists as being treacherous and unpatriotic; even worse, the Communists openly supported the Partition of India. The Communists proclaimed that India was not one nation but 'a collection of several separate nationalities' and that 'the demand for Pakistan is a just and democratic one because Hindus would oppress them in future'. In the face of all this, if the Congress of today wants to accept the support of the CPM, it is its business, but the country must know the real face of Communists.
From the very start they were anti-national and are best described as traitors to the cause of an undivided India. In his overture to Maxwell, Joshi called all opponent of the CPI, including the Congress as 'fascist elements and fifth columnists'. To quote Chaudhuri again: 'He (Joshi) was optimistic and felt impelled to support the (Muslim) league in its demand for the vivisection of India. One of the objects of the propaganda was to stimulate a lively interests in the demand for Pakistan so as to recruit Muslim in their ranks'. Vajpayee can defend himself but the Communists of whatever brand, cannot defend themselves. The sad part of it all is that the BJP does not seem to have any clue as to the role of the Communists and their false claim to secularism. By openly supporting the demand for Pakistan, the Communists have long forfeited the respect of the country. For any party to support the CPM today is an insult to the concept of secularism. The CPM should be isolated.
(The author is a veteran journalist and chief of the Prasar Bharati.
He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan this year.)