“Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1937. ISSUES IN INDIA

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 454, 11 June 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1937. ISSUES IN INDIA

The particular matter that is h olding up the settlement of the constitutional argument in India at the moment is the very essential one of the power of veto given to provincial Governors. That power has been conferred to safeguard the rights of minorities and to prevent legislation from going into force if it is likely to provoke racial or religious conflict. Mr Gandhi now suggests that instead of vetoing measures the Governor of a Province mi ght dismiss the Ministry, but of course that would not get over the difficulty. The Secretary for India put the position quite clearly when he said that the withdrawal of the right of veto would be a grave breach of faith with the minorities and others who were promised the measure of protection against the arbitrary rule of the majority. Actually the power given to the provincial Governors does not differ in kind from that invested in the Governors of the self-governing Dominions. At least one instance has occurred in recent years in which a State Governor has exercised his right to veto legislation that he considered to be dangerous. But of course the necessity for some such provision is far greater in India than in any other of the Dominions, for the possibilities of disorder, conflict and disruption are always present. Mr Gandhi’s alliance with the Congress Party in this argument is the stranger because his earlier anxiety was for the protection of minorities, and of people who could not fight their own political battles, and it is suggested that he has come back into the arena in the hope of re-establishing his waning influence. The thousands of educated young Hindus who followed him through the non co-operation movement, it is asserted, were disappointed by the failure of his promises and prophecies, and these were the men who were to carry on the independence movement. What direction will they take? Thus beneath the constitutional argument there is awaiting decision an issue of the utmost importance to the future of India.