PROBLEM OF INDIA

Chronicle (Levin), 8 February 1947, Page 5

PROBLEM OF INDIA

Press Assn -

Congress and Leagne Still Poles Apart i COALITiON NEAR COLLAPSE

By T elegraph

-Copyrighl

Received Friday, 7.5 p.m. NEAU DELH1, F?b. 6. The Congress Party has asked Loi\ Wavell to deline the positioja of tht Aioslem League in the mterim Govern meut. The Congress viewpoint is thz,. ihe Interim Government and Conijti tuent Assembly are inseparaBle parts Oi the system proposed by the Britis: Alission. The Moslem League, therqi.ore, snould not by aiiov. eu io ryniai. .n the Government while refusing ti. join the eonstitution making. . Emphasisiug that Air. Nehru'ttetter to the Viceroy has furthed vfidened the breach between. the Aioslym neague and Congress Party, the Time« Delhi correspondent saj-g Mr. Nyhru has delinitely , put before the Viceroy, anu tl]rough him before the British Govern uient, the view that since the long term and short term constitutional plan. were inseparable, the Moslem League h ref'usal to enter the Coiistituent As semblv rnakes their position in' the Interim Government untenable. Thn view, the correspondent says, is sharei. by six Congress and three minoriU meriibers of Cabinet who feel that tln League 's obstructionist spirit t.owaro constitutional proposals stultifies the whole governance of India and reduce-. the so c^illed coalition to a faree. They therefore vvish to throvv upon the Bri tish Government the onus of deciding that the League has put itself out oi court and of ealling upon its members to leave the Interim Government League members have no intention of resigning unless and until they are ejeeled from Cabinet. The League also feels that it is incumbent upon the British Government to hold the Congress Party 's qualified acceptance of the Cabinet Alission's plan as invalid and therefore to declare the Constituent Assembly illegal. The correspondent points- out that were the British Governmen-t to accept eitlier of these two contentions, thv logieal implication would be that the Cabinet Mission 's plan must be held to liave failed and that an attempt to hand over power to a combination oi the two parties Who together would draft a new eonstitution for India,must now be abandoned. The correspondent adds that whether tlie British Government is prepared to admif this implication and to seek to implemeftt India 's indepeudcnce through one pariv alone, or whether it can be possible flo postpone decision until tlie Constituent Assembly is due to meet agaiji, in the hope that the M'oskuu League can lie persuaded to change its mindpas a fundamental question which can lle decided only in London. What is ceL tain is that Congress and the Moslem l.eague remain poles apart and cannot bring themselves at this stage to compromise or coopei'ate for tlie common working out of India 's destiny. The correspondent says the fascade of a coalition government, never very convincing, is now split wide o,pen and the edifi.ee is clearly in danger of coilapse. The correspondent suggests that Moslem League ministers will not resign until ejected.