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

138 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
communal strife also helped to bring to the fore, people who
generally fought shy of politics and who were averse to doing
anything which involved suffering and sacrifice. In Bengal
the Left Wing was at a disadvantage for some time, because
a large number of Congressmen belonging to that group were
in prison either under Regulation III of 1818 or under the
Bengal Ordinance.
From the middle of 1925 onwards there was a gradual
watering down of the original Swarajist policy of undiluted
opposition. In June, Pandit Motilal Nehru accepted a seat
on the Skeen Committee appointed by the Government to
report on the Indianisation of the Army. Not long after this,
Mr. S. B. Tambe,¹ a prominent member of the Swaraj Party
of the Central Provinces, accepted an appointment as a
member of the Governor's Executive Council and this step
was approved of by Mr. N. C. Kelkar and other prominent
Maharashtrian Swarajist leaders. About this time the Indian
Legislative Assembly was given the right of electing its own
President and Mr. Vithalbhai J. Patel, one of the most
thorough-going obstructionists in the Swaraj Party, stood as a
candidate and was duly elected to this office. Though the
acceptance of that office involved a certain amount of co-
operation with the Government, Mr. Patel performed his
functions with remarkable ability and conspicuous success—so
much so that though he always acted within the limits of the
Constitution and with scrupulous fairness, he came to be
dreaded by the Treasury Benches for his independent and
impartial rulings. The popularity which the Swaraj Party
gained during the period of its existence, was due in no small
measure to his work as President. Working with a wretched
Constitution and without any parliamentary precedents to
back him, Mr. Patel was, nevertheless, able to maintain the
rights and privileges of the members of the House of which he
became the custodian and gave to the Opposition Party and its
leader the status they would be entitled to in a free country
enjoying a democratic Constitution.
In September 1925, the report of the Reforms Enquiry
¹ Mr. Tambe later on became the Acting Governor of the Central Pro-
vinces when the Governor went home on leave for some months.