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

230 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
the election of the President, it elected Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel, than whom a stauncher follower of the Mahatma it was
difficult to find, as the President. Every member of the
Working Committee felt that his prestige was at stake and
strained every nerve to get the largest number of supporters
from his province to attend the Karachi Congress. Besides the
members of the Working Committee, all the leaders of the
Right Wing felt called upon to exert themselves in order to
secure the ratification of the Pact at the Karachi Congress.
All the monied interests also desired to see the armistice
followed up by a permanent peace, so that they could settle
down to business peacefully. Consequently, there was no
dearth of funds for those who wanted to go to Karachi to
support the Mahatma. On the other hand, the oppositionists
were at a great disadvantage. Many of their adherents were
still in prison and did not get the benefit of the amnesty which
the Pact had promised. Defections among their leaders
had weakened their position in the country and even those
who were in a position to attend the Karachi Congress, were.
handicapped by want of necessary funds. After the Lahore
Congress, Mr. Srinivasa Iyengar had retired from public
activity. Along with other Left-Wing leaders, he had been
treated shabbily by the President of the Lahore Congress and
by the Mahatma, who was instrumental in excluding him
from the Working Committee, though he was the most
outstanding leader from Madras and was an ex-President of
the Congress. This insult he had taken to heart so much
that he had vowed he would have nothing to do with the
Congress so long as Mahatma Gandhi remained the leader.
Besides Mr. Srinivasa Iyengar, there was another defection
in the person of Dr. Mohammed Alam of Lahore who had
played a prominent part at the Lahore Congress, but who
became a supporter of the Mahatma after the Gandhi-
Irwin Pact. Of all the provinces, Bengal was most hostile to
the Pact but even there, there was a party led by the late
Mr. Sengupta pledged to support the Mahatma.
In these circumstances, what could the Left-Wingers do?"
Before my release from prison on March 8th, I ascertained
that the political prisoners as a rule, were hostile to the Pact,