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

180 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
1928, adopted it. But subsequent experience has shown that
it was a mistake for the Congress to take this step, as it was
a mistake for the Congress to participate in a Round Table
Conference in which other people were present who had no
right to be there. The responsibility for producing a con-
stitution belongs solely and exclusively to the party that fights
for freedom. A report drafted by an All-Parties Committee
can have value only if it is ratified by all parties in the country.
But such ratification is never possible in a country which has
been under foreign rule for some time. In such a country,
there are bound to be parties which are under the thumb
of the Government and these parties can always hold up the
ratification of a document like the Nehru Report. Moreover,
what is the value of such ratification when the other parties
are not going to fight for freedom? The party that fights,
should not, therefore, look up to any other party to produce
the constitution for which it alone is fighting.
The most important conference of the year was the annual
session of the Indian National Congress held in Calcutta and
presided over by Pandit Motilal Nehru. The attendance at
the Calcutta session was the largest since the inception of the
Congress and all arrangements were made on a colossal scale.
Within the Congress there were two groups—the older group
who would be content if they had a Dominion form of
Government and who were therefore in favour of accepting
the Nehru Report in toto and the Left Wing who adhered to
the resolution of independence passed at the Madras Congress
and wanted to accept the Nehru Report only on the basis of
complete national independence. At a meeting of the All-
India Congress Committee held at Delhi in November, a
compromise had been arrived at between the two groups, at
the instance of Pandit Motilal Nehru. ‘At the Calcutta session
of the Congress, however, the Mahatma refused to accept the
Delhi formula on the ground that it was self-contradictory
and the breach between the two groups was thus opened once
again. Attempts for a compromise were made by the Mahatma
and Pandit Motilal Nehru but the maximum concession
which they could make, fell short of the minimum demand of
the Left Wingers. Though the Left Wing leaders were