On this day...100 years ago

Punjab Provincial Conference

Lahore, Sunday, November 30, 1924

IT is now definitely settled that Pandit Motilal Nehru will preside over the ensuing session of the Punjab Provincial Conference at Lahore. Usually, though not invariably, a provincial conference is presided over by someone among the leaders of the province concerned, but there is nothing in the rules to prevent public men from outside the province being called upon to preside over it. Even if there was any such thing, an exception in the present case in favour of Pandit Nehru would be perfectly justified. Pandit Nehru, though not a Punjabi by birth, is one of those all-India leaders who have identified themselves in the closest and most direct manner possible with the wellbeing of this province. Indeed, there is no non-Punjabi all-India leader with the exception of Madan Mohan Malaviya and Mahatma Gandhi who can be compared with him in this respect. The services he rendered to this province in the hour of her sorest need, when the best and choicest of her sons were in prison and she was passing through a period of depression unprecedented in her modern history, can never be forgotten by grateful people. In calling upon such a man to preside over her provincial conference at a time when she is passing through another and almost equally severe trial, though the trouble in this case is of a different order, Punjab has not only honoured herself but also consulted her best interests. It is equally in the fitness of things and equally a matter for congratulations that along with the Pandit, there will be present at the conference other all-India leaders, both Hindu and Muslim, headed by Gandhi himself.