Swarajya Party programme

SINCE the meeting of the Executive Council of the Swarajya Party was held recently at Bombay, some doubt has arisen in the mind of the public as to the exact position of the party and the change, if any, in its policy and programme. No statement of an authoritative kind has yet been made as to the results of the Juhu discussions or of the subsequent Bombay meeting of the Swarajists; and their continued reticence in this respect has created the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the results of these proceedings are not altogether satisfactory. Some light, however, has been thrown on the question in the interview granted last week by Mr A. Rangaswami Iyengar, President of the Tamil Nadu Swarajya Party to a representative of The Hindu. He admitted that various conflicting rumours were circulated regarding Mahatma Gandhi’s attitude to the council-entry question and some of those who started them did so for sensational purposes rather than for promoting common understanding and plan of work for the national cause. He was not at liberty to disclose what precisely took place at the meetings and conferences or what may be expected finally on the question of council entry. “So far as the Swarajya Party is concerned,” he said, “their anxiety is to appeal to Mahatma Gandhi’s goodwill and sympathy, as well as support and sanction to whatever extent it may be possible. They are eager to convince that on most of the items of their programme, they have tried to the best of their lights to frame and carry out according to their conceptions the principles of non-co-operation to the extent to which they are committed to it in the Congress, apart from the general theory or philosophy of non-violence and non-co-operation.”