‘No fratricidal war’

WE confess we do not find Mahatma Gandhi’s latest statement regarding the Congress situation, made to an Associated Press interviewer, more reassuring than his previous statements on the same subject. Undoubtedly, Mahatmaji is emphatic in the avowal of his belief that he will able to avoid “internal dissension”. But as he himself says in the same breath, everything depends upon the construction that is put upon the words “internal dissension”. If those words mean an actual split, the secession on the part of either the No-Changers or the Swarajists from the Congress in the sense of their not attending the annual session and not presenting on occasions a united front to the Government as Congressmen, we for our part never had any fear or misgiving. Mahatmaji is perfectly right in saying that both the Swarajists and the No-Changers are far too patriotic for such a course to commend itself to them. Nor is it a question of patriotism only. The superiority of the present Constitution of the Congress over its predecessor lies just in this that by making it possible for the minority of today to become the majority of tomorrow, it has for all time avoided the necessity of a split in this sense. And where no such necessity exists, it is a matter of ordinary common sense that each of the two parties has everything to gain by being within the Congress and everything to lose by going out of it. The influence, the prestige and the authority of the Congress are far too real for any group of Congressmen to light-heartedly forego the great advantage of being associated with it both for their own purpose and for the purpose of their patriotic activities.