“Double,
double toil and trouble,
Fire
burn and cauldron bubble.”
Hi, Everyone! This
story will be the last in this series. Not only does it expose the
back-stabbing that Gandhi apparently routinely indulges in to keep his power,
but it also exposes the stab in the heart he gave to Mother India.
“Gandhi’s observance of a prolonged
silence was partly due to his physical weakness and partly to his secret
involvement in a serious plan. . . .
Gandhi made him [Dr. Syed Mahmud in
October 1944] write a letter to Bhulabhai Desai requesting him to see Liaquat
Ali, the leader of the Muslim League in the Central Assembly, and discuss with
him the formation of a composite Government consisting of the Congress and the
Muslim League. After waiting for a fortnight or so, Gandhi himself wrote a
letter in Gujarati to Bhulabhai urging him to expedite the matter.
Bhulabhai met Liaquat Ali in Delhi
and prepared a draft which was later known as the Bhulabhai-Liaquat Ali Pact.
Liaquat Ali was to get Jinnah’s approval and Bhulabhai Gandhi’s. Bhulabhai met
Gandhi with the draft and Gandhi made some changes in it, approved the draft
secretly and asked Bhulabhai to meet Lord Wavell, the Viceroy. Bhulabhai met Wavell
and handed over the draft to him for consideration and action.[1]
This secret Pact surpassed the
Rajaji formula in the harm it did to the national majority. It agreed to a
percentage of fifty-fifty in all representations for the Hindus and the
Muslims.”
[It was not just an
agreement of fifty-fifty Hindu-Muslim representation (which in itself was a
colossal betrayal of the Hindu majority, going as it was—in leaps and bounds—ahead
of weighted electorates.)
·
It was an agreement of
fifty-fifty representation of the Congress and the League.
·
There would be no general
elections either at the Centre or in the provinces.
·
Democracy was given the go-by!
That wiped out the
chance of either the Hindu Mahasabha (for Hindu seats) or any other Muslim
party (for Muslim seats) representing the Indians and forming a Government in
free India.]
“The demand for parity in the
alliance of the Congress with the Muslim League in the Central Assembly had
ripened to a reality. . . .
Meanwhile, news of the secret Pact
leaked out and the members of the Working Committee, who were interned at
Ahmednagar, were indignant at it. They expressed their anger and displeasure in
a resolution about the pact.
Dr. P. C. Ghosh, one of the members
of the Working Committee, met Gandhi at Sevagram after his release from
Ahmednagar and gave him a copy of the resolution of the Working Committee.
Gandhi took the cue and sent a female messenger to Delhi to contact Bhulabhai
Desai. She told him that Gandhi would not bless a Government formed by Bhulabhai
and Liaquat because he did not like the agreement. In a fit of anger Bhulabhai
shouted: ‘Let Bapu go to hell. I will stand by what I have
done!’ . . .
Azad, Patel and Nehru called
Bhulabhai Desai and censured him for having mooted the Bhulabhai Desai-Liaquat
Ali Pact. According to them it amounted to treachery.”
[It was not the parity
they objected to, per se, for they were agreeable with parity only a short time
later in the Simla Conference proposals. It was the fact that Bhulabhai had
approached the Viceroy going over the heads and intended to be in charge of the
free Indian government that incensed them!]
“Bhulabhai told them that they were
blaming him unnecessarily as he had done the bidding of the Mahatma. Upon this
they furiously pounced upon him and said they would decide later what to do
about the Mahatma, but he should not expect any important assignment in future
from the Congress!
Humiliated, Bhulabhai met Gandhi
and pleaded for removing the injustice done to him. Instead of protecting him
from threats and attacks, Gandhi told Bhulabhai that he had wealth, reputation
and position; he should not covet a post in the Viceroy’s Executive Council.
Not only that, Gandhi asked him as
he had done in the case of Dr. Khare, to give him a statement in writing to
this effect: ‘I, Bhulabhai Desai, consider myself incompetent to be a member of
the Viceroy’s Executive Council and also declare that I will never accept such
a job even now or at any time in the future.’
Bhulabhai was stunned! He said to
Gandhi angrily, ‘You use a person as an instrument for your purpose and as soon
as that purpose is served, you bury that individual. No one should expect
justice at your hands.’”
Bhulabhai should
certainly have known better than to have played Gandhi’s games! But schemes and
power plays were the order of the day in the Congress Camp—quite
commonplace!—and certainly the Mahatma was a master at that game.
Anurupa
Mahatma Gandhi Facts:
Gandhi Revealed
[1] “There
can hardly be any doubt that Desai had in fact reached an understanding with
Liaquat Ali Khan on the formation of a national government at the
centre . . . Gandhiji himself admitted later that the
Desai-Liaquat pact had received his blessing.” Transfer of Power, V. P. Menon, page 178
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