…For the Congress is not an electioneering device, the Congress is not a mushroom party to run for an election. Elections will come and elections will go, but the Congress will go on because the Congress has its roots in generations of work and service, and trouble and travail – because the Congress has its roots in the hearts of millions of people ….(extracts from one of his speeches during the first general election in 1951-52)
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For the Congress is not an electioneering device, the Congress is not a mushroom party to run for an election. Elections will come and elections will go, but the Congress will go on because the Congress has its roots in generations of work and service, and trouble and travail – because the Congress has its roots in the hearts of millions of people ….
“ …[I speak] as one who fought with you and others in the struggle for freedom, and one who in spite of his hundred failings will carry on that struggle to the bitter end. So far as I am concerned the struggle is not over with the coming of political independence, that was only one stage, one journey ended, but the real journey never ends for a nation and even for us the journey is not ended because there is so much in this country which has got to be changed, and uprooted.
There is no rest for me and there is no rest for any person feeling that way – till the final rest comes and we can work no more. There is no journey’s end to a nation’s pilgrimage, there is a journey’s end, for you and me, but till that time comes, till we have not fulfilled the pledges we have taken, there should be no resting for us. So, I went as a Congress worker, as a Congress volunteer, in search of those faces that I knew of old and in search for new faces that perhaps could look me straight in the eyes, and feel the way I was feeling.
“The idea came into my head because some people, often write in their newspapers and periodicals that the Congress is dead or dying and I just laughed. But when I saw those mighty crowds coming to me, I wondered who all these people were, who talked about the Congress being dead or dying? I wondered if they had any touch with the Indian people, if they knew anything about the people they dare to speak about.
For the Congress is not an electioneering device, the Congress is not a mushroom party to run for an election. Elections will come and elections will go, but the Congress will go on because the Congress has its roots in generations of work and service, and trouble and travail – because the Congress has its roots in the hearts of millions of people .
Now, I have no grievance against most of the other parties in India. I just do not see why other parties should not exist. Certainly, they are welcome. It is dangerous for the Congress or for any organisation to have it all its way. There must be opposition, there must be struggle, life is struggle, life is not ease. Any organisation, not only an individual, that has an easy time is corrupted by it. Therefore, I like opposition, I like parties to grow up to oppose the Congress. Therefore, it is not in any spirit that I want it all in my own way. I just do not see today any group, any party in India capable of shouldering the heavy burdens of India, except the Congress ….
I do feel that somehow, these elections in India, as perhaps elections elsewhere in the world, have a strange, benumbing effect on people. Benumbing in many ways and their normal standards somehow do not function then. This applies, let us be clear about it, as much to the Congress as to others.
Fortunately, if I may with all humility say so, they do not have that effect on me. I do not get excited about elections in the slightest, and whether I win or lose does not cause me the least concern. What I like about elections or anything else is a good fight, and I give a good fight. But for the rest, it does not very much matter to me. I have bigger fights in view. Why should I exhaust my mind and the rest of me in thinking about an election?…
I welcome other organisations…provided they function peacefully and in a constitutional way…I do not mind expression of any ideas, whatever they are, however radical, however revolutionary they are, provided the approach is peaceful…So I do not mind propagation of ideas as I want people to think….”
(We bring you today extracts from one of his speeches during the first general election in 1951-52 when Jawaharlal Nehru led the Congress campaign, that campaign which gives us a feel of how different the political atmosphere was from what we witness today. He is striving to educate people about how elections are a means to a higher end, not an end in themselves, to seek power. He welcomes other parties, and different, even revolutionary ideas, provided “the approach is peaceful”.- Selected and edited by Mridula Mukherjee, former Professor of History at JNU and former Director of Nehru Memorial Museum & Library)(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)
