WHAT I STAND FOR

-Acharya JB Kripalani - 

Like every nation India has two fold policy domestic and foreign though the two must in some respects be interconnected India's internal policy, under the present regime, is largely woven round the successive Five-Year Plans. I am not against planning. However I hold with Gandhiji that in planning “the supreme condition is man” and that “for India rural planning consisted in the best utilisation of the whole man-power of India and the distribution of the ‘products in her numerous villages'.  Such planning would provide work for our half starved masses and would be the best way to raise their standard of living.

I also believe that planning should not impair individual or group initiative socially controlled if need be through the democratic government in the interests of the nation as a whole.

Further I believe as I have often stated in the Lok Sabha that while planning we must always keep in view our capacities administrative, technical and financial. So far as finance is concerned we must meticulously calculate what resources we can mobilise internally without further adding to the present heavy burden on the impoverished masses. Similarly borrowings from outside should be cautious and moderate so as not to mortgage the future we are supposed to build up. Such borrowing depends upon the changing international situation which is beyond our control:

I want our taxation system to be put on a scientific basis so that the sacrifices demanded from each section of the population are just and equitable. Agriculture in a country like India must be free from what is called “land revenue” which is in fact rent on land. It should be taxed by a single graduated income-tax like earnings from any other source. This would automatically exempt uneconomic holdings from paying any tax. I am sorry that these considerations have not been paramount ill our planning.

Otherwise too our plans have been made defectively and executed if anything more defectively. It is clear from official figures that the cost of most of our projects has gone far be-yond our estimates. The yield form the projects has often fallen short of the estimates. It is this defective planning as well as defective execution that has resulted in dangerous srort-falls in those sectors which the planners themselves regard as basic or strategic, e.g. coal, electricity transports cement, fertiliser etc. Therefore, I want our plans to be made scientifically and executed honestly and efficiently. I am against inflation and tax evasions. I feel there must be the utmost economy in the administration of our country. Also there must be much greater efficiency and integrity than is usual these days, I think that hoarding, black-marketing and other anti-social activities should be put down with a heavy hand. These corrode the morale of the people and spread cynicism.

In foreign policy I stand and have always stood for non-alignment that is keeping clear of involvements with any military bloc in the present cold war though of course being a democratic country India. I feel cannot but dislike all brands of totalitarianism and the domination, open or veiled of one country over another. All this is in consonance with the historic trend which was implicit in our peaceful national struggle for freedom.

But, today, with our present war with China non-alignment for us cannot have quite the same meaning; as before. We are now a belligerent nation not in military alliance with any other nation. This position must be maintained irrespective of the fact that nobody is anxious to have a military alliance with us. This however, should not mean that we should feel shy of receiving military aid from any country which is willing to give it.

This does not militate against our building up our military strength.

THE GREATEST DANGER

I want every inch of the sacred soil of our mother land to be defended against attack from any quarter whatsoever. The greatest danger today arises from the aggression by communist China. I have been warning my countrymen against this danger from year to year ever since 1950 When Communist China swallowed up Tibet. I have always advocated strong and resolute measures to be taken against the Chinese aggression on our soil I am. Therefore glad that at long last our Government has been shaken out of “our credulity” as the Rashtrapati has put it, and has realised the true nature of the threat posed by Communist China to the safety and integrity of our country. In all the effective measures that the government is prepared to take to counter that threat I, like the rest of the nation barring a few having extra-territorial loya1ities, aim at the 'Government's back. Those in authority must however, realise that in order to achieve a total mobilisation of the nation's resources they Must be able to enlist the co-operation of all groups and sections of the people. In such efforts the Government will always have my support.

Since 1917, when I first joined Gandhiji in the Champaran Satyagraha I have basically accepted his Principles policies and programmes in matters social, economic and political. Gandhiji stood for social justice in the fullest sense of the term. He did not call it Socialism because there were so many varieties of socialism at variance with each other! In some of its forms it becomes totalitarian and reactionary.

My religion is a matter between me and my Creator. I do not bring it into the public affairs of my country. I believe in the fundamental morality taught by all the great religions of the world the morality without which social life itself would be impossible This in brief is the stand I take in the public life of my country.

Reprint from 'The Pionese Magazine Section dated April 14, 1963