Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated August 1, 1956: Nehru replies to charge

Prime Minister Nehru, intervening in the debate on the States Reorganisation Bill in the Lok Sabha on July 30, struck a note calculated to inspire sober and dispassionate consideration of the subject and to arrest the embitterment of feelings between the different language groups. His appeal to members to bear in mind that they represented no particular constituency or region or linguistic group but were the custodians of the interest of the country as a whole came soon after the former Finance Minister, Mr. C. D. Deshmukh's charge against the Government and many of the top Congress leaders, with the exception of Mr. Nehru, of harbouring animus against the Maharashtrians. The principal reason for Mr. Nehru's intervention was to correct the erroneous impression created by Mr. Deshmukh's criticism of the manner in which the Central Cabinet functioned and implied reflection on other Cabinet Ministers. Mr. Nehru said that Mr. Deshmukh's charge was "very very unfair to his respected colleagues with whom he worked for six years." To the charge that he had made an important announcement without the approval of the Cabinet, Mr. Nehru replied that he had not said anything new in Bombay. The five-year period mentioned by him for ascertaining the wishes of the people of Bombay was not any crucial decision of the Government. He had said it partly to indicate that the Government's mind was not closed so far as this subject was concerned and partly to lessen the shock given by the contents of the SR Bill to those who did not like it. Warming up a little, Mr. Nehru retorted, "After all I am the Prime Minister of India and I can lay down the policy and vary it. I know the democratic procedure and in all democratic countries the Prime Minister is the linchpin. How can anyone say that the Prime Minister cannot make a statement? Moreover I am something more than the Prime Minister of this country. We are children of the Indian revolution and we still have something of the fire of that revolution." In reply to the second charge that the decision about placing Bombay city under Central administration was not taken by the full Cabinet, he said that the SR Bill, which incorporated this provision, was considered by the Cabinet. "Our difficulty has been that we have tried, too much perhaps, to balance respective viewpoints and, in doing so, we have often succeeded in displeasing many.''

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