The Congress Executive

THE question as to who should or should not form part of the Congress Executive has for the last few days been engaging the serious attention of Mahatma Gandhi and that large section of political India which owes allegiance to him and India’s non-official Parliament. With that directness, vigour and lucidity which characterise all his public and private utterances, the Mahatma lays down as many as six conditions which, in his opinion, ought to be satisfied before a man or a woman can become or remain a member of the Executive. Let each one of us, he says in the latest issue of Young India, ask himself or herself:– (1) Do I believe in non-violence and truth for the purpose of gaining Swaraj? (2) Do I sincerely believe in Hindu-Muslim unity? (3) Do I believe in the capacity of the Charkha to solve the problem of the economic distress of the starving millions of India, and in order to make hand-spun Khaddar universal, am I prepared to spin religiously for half an hour at least per day, except when travelling continuously for 24 hours? (4) Do I believe in the boycott of Government titles, Government schools, law courts and Council? (5) If a Hindu, do I believe that untouchability is a blot upon Hinduism? (6) Do I believe in the complete abolition of the drink and drug evil in spite of the fact that the whole of the revenue will be wiped out at a single stroke? It might be said that these are all subjective tests — mere matters of belief or disbelief — and that it is neither safe nor desirable to make the appointment or continuance of the Executive of such a body as the Congress dependent merely upon the satisfaction by its members of such tests.