STALEMATE IN INDIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5323, 8 February 1947, Page 4

STALEMATE IN INDIA

JT was too much to expect that . the Moslem League's 'working committee, at its meeting at Karachi, would agree to-lift its l boycott of the Constituent ' Assembly. Such an outcome had been foubidden in the resolution passed by the Congress working committee on January 6, for that resolution dealt equivocallywith the crucial question of the "grouping" powers of, the §ections in the Assembly. The British Cabinet mission, last May, proposed that the provin- j cial representatives in the Assembly divide into three sections, with Madras, Bombay, ; United Provinces, Central Provinces, and Orissa in Section A, Punjab, North-West Frontier ; Province, and Sind in Section B, and Bengal and Assam in Section ! C. The statement then de- j clared : J * These sections shall proceed to j settle provincial constitutions 1 for the provinces, included in'" each section, sand shall also decide whether any group con- ; stitution shall be set up for those provinces ancl if so w7ith what provincial subjects the group should deal ... As soon as the new constitutional arrangements have come into operation it shall be open to any province I to elect to come out of any group in which is has been placed. Such a decision shall be taken by the legislature of the province after the first general election under the new constitution. o t The Congress and the League disagreed on the meaning of these paragraphs. The question raised was whether the representatives of all the provinces together in each section should 5 decide by a majority vote whether there should be a group constitution, or whether, as the Congress argued, a majority vote of the representatives of each province alone should decide ' whether that province would be a member of a group. The statement issued by the British Government after the round-table talks in December upheld the League's interpretation, and urged the Congress to accept this view and so open the , way for the League to reconsiderits decision to boycott -the Assembly. On January 6 the Congress working committee passed a resolution, by 99 votes

to 52, acceptmg the British and Moslem interpretation ; but the Congress resolution went on to say that acceptanee of this interpretation did not involve any compulsion of a province and that, if any attempt were' made at compulsion, "a province or part of a province has the right to take such action as may be deemed necessary to give effect to the wishes of the people concerned." It was in no way surprising. therefore, that in a dispatch written on the . eve of the Karachi meeting the New Delhi correspondent of The Times should have found the omens far from propitious. Nevertheless, he offered some hope. Some informed observers, he reported, doubted whether Mr. Jinnah and his colleagues would be guilty of such bad tactics as to put themselves in the wrong by rejecting the (Congress offer out of hand. It was thought more likely, he added, that the Moslems would follow the Congress example by returning a qualified answer inveighing against both the British Government and the Congress but not i?4jecting constitutional courses or flatly refusing to participate in' th'e Constituent Assembly. The .hope

has not been realised. In its resolution the working comittee denounces the process of consti-tution-rnaking as illegal and invalid, and calls for the immediate dissolution of the •Assembly; and with that decision it seems to' have made the choice between peacef ul progress and civil strife during the coming months.