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dated May 30, 1956: Monstrous action

The Prime Minister said in the Lok Sabha on May 28 that he could not conceive of a "more monstrous and more criminal action" than the perpetration of the Kharagpur train tragedy. "It was sheer murder or attempt to murder, nothing short of it," he declared. Mr. Nehru was intervening in a two-hour discussion on the week-end incident in which a mob of strikers pulled out the engine driver and fireman from a train and sent it crashing on to the station platform injuring 63 persons. The local union, said Mr. Nehru, was "either directly or indirectly responsible for all that has happened" or was "completely incompetent and has no business to exist." But he made it clear that he was not angry with the workers themselves or the trade union movement. "I am all for trade unionism in India, but I do not wish trade unionism to be dragged into the mire by some people who are always making them indulge in these evil and wicked practices." Mr. Nehru wanted the House to consider the Kharagpur tragedy against the larger background of the "creeping in of violence in our public activities," and said that he could find an excuse even for a murderer, but he considered the stone-thrower to be a mean, despicable person for whom he had no sympathy. He told the trade union movement that trade union strength had to be built up in a disciplined way; lightning strikes only weakened it. The House cheered Mr. Nehru when he said emphatically that whatever the rights and wrongs of a particular claim the Government would not tolerate violence and methods of coercion.

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