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

194 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
latures when the new Constitution was under consideration,
especially when it had been demonstrated the year before,
that because of the presence of Congressmen in the Assembly,
that body had been able to repudiate the Simon Commission.
The writer was among the few men who fought against the
proposed boycott till the very last—but with the support of
Pandit Motilal Nehru and subsequently of the late Mr. J. M.
Sengupta, the Mahatma could easily carry the Congress with
him and even Bengal could not put up an undivided opposi-
tion, as had been possible at the Allahabad meeting of the
All-India Congress Committee in July, before the breach
between the late Mr. Sengupta and the writer took place.
In August, a special meeting of the All-India Congress
Committee was called to decide who should preside over the
ensuing Congress. In accordance with the Congress Con-
stitution, the vast majority of the Provincial Congress Com-
mittee had nominated Mahatma Gandhi, but he declined to
accept the nomination. The general feeling in Congress
circles was that the honour should go to Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel. But the Mahatma decided to back the candidature of
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. For the Mahatma the choice was
a prudent one, but for the Congress Left Wing it proved to
be unfortunate, because that event marked the beginning of
a political rapprochement between the Mahatma and Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru and a consequent alienation between the
latter and the Congress Left Wing. Since 1920, Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru had been a close adherent of the policy
advocated by the Mahatma and his personal relations with
the latter had been always friendly. Nevertheless, since his
return from Europe in December 1927, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru began to call himself a Socialist and give expression
to views hostile towards Mahatma Gandhi and the older
leaders and to ally himself in his public activities with the
Left-Wing opposition within the Congress. But for his
strenuous advocacy, it would not have been possible for the
Independence League to attain the importance that it did.
Therefore, for the Mahatma it was essential that he should
win over Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru if he wanted to beat down
the Left-Wing opposition and regain his former undisputed