द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

DESHBANDHU C. R. DAS IN POWER 125
issued under the newly-promulgated Bengal Ordinance.
The warrants under the Regulation had been signed as early
as July last, the day after the Government were finally
defeated in their attempt to retain the ministers in office and
work the diarchical constitution. It has not been explained
yet as to why the warrants had not been executed for nearly
three months. The conjecture generally made is that the
Bengal Government waited for sanction to a larger number
of arrests and also for the promulgation of the Bengal
Ordinance. Moreover, the whole matter had to be placed
before the then Labour Secretary of State for India, Lord
Olivier, and so the delay was unavoidable. With regard to the
raison d'être of these arrests, the public notion at the time
was that the pressure of the Swarajists in the local bodies
(especially the Calcutta Municipality), in the legislatures and
at Tarakeswar had unnerved the Government. And the
reason why they struck only in Bengal, was that the anti-
Government forces were strongest in that province.
The large number of arrests made so suddenly and
unexpectedly on October 25th, created tremendous excite-
ment in the country. Official circles came out with the excuse
that a revolutionary conspiracy was on foot and the arrests
had to be made before anything serious happened. But it
was hard to persuade the public that those who had been
arrested were engaged in a revolutionary conspiracy. Public
clamour against the arrests continued to be very strong and
one month after my arrest, Government began to think
seriously of releasing me. But the prestige of the police, at
whose instance the arrests had been made, stood in the way
and the proposal had to be dropped. The agitation over my
arrest was the strongest at the time because the public thought
that the object of the Government was to strike at the Swarajist
administration of the new Corporation. Everyone knew,
including the extreme loyalists, that I was engaged day and
night in my municipal duties and had been forced to give up
Politics altogether, since I was appointed Chief Executive
Officer of the Calcutta Corporation. Official and semi-official
circles were therefore at pains to put forward an excuse for
the arrests which would find some credence among the public.