THE CONGRESS COMMITTEE'S CIRCULAR
It is after that that the secretaries of the Provincial Congress Committee wrote this letter:
"Dear Sir,—It appears that the Secretary of State for India will very soon make his announcement about the proposed Reforms. It is in contemplation to hold a special session of the Congress and of the Provincial Conference after the announcement. We have a duty to perform. The future of our country for at least a generation will depend upon the nature of the Reforms. You will therefore keep yourselves ready to hold public meetings, to attend the Congress (wherever held) and the Conference in very large numbers and to fearlessly criticise the proposals if they fall short of our ideal. We must make a united stand and see that they meet our legitimate aspirators.
Yours faithfully,—I. B. Sen, Bejoy Krishna Bose, Secys."
Now, gentlemen, you have heard the whole of this letter. Do you think there is anything objectionable in this letter? What does the letter say? It says merely that Mr. Montagu is going to make his pronouncement and that we have to watch, if it falls short of our ideal and our legitimate aspirations and if so we ought to fight against it, we ought to attend in large numbers, the special session of the Congress and conference to show a united front, and to criticise the scheme fearlessly. Now, is there anything in this to which any Nationalist, any person who has the good of his country at heart can take the slightest objection?
THE 'BENGALEE'S PATHOS
I will read out to you what the Bengalee says. Unfortunately we cannot dissociate the Editor of the Bengalee from the paper. Otherwise I would have cast it into the waste-paper basket and would not have thought about it. This is what the Bengalee writes in its editorial of June 6th;—
"We confess that we have read the above with pain and regret, though not with surprise, for in a recent article, we pretty clearly indicated the constitution and the policy of the present Bengal Provincial Congress Committee. The old leaders are the men of yesterday and they of course should have no voice in the deliberation of the New India which they have helped to build up. For we are always wiser than our fathers, and to acknowledge our indebtedness to them is to belittle our own importance which must always be a prime consideration. There is only one little risk which their policy involves and they may as well be reminded of it thus early, viz., that they may be paid back in their own coins and with compound interest by those who come after them."
What is there in this innocent letter to call for this personal and vehement attack? Are we to be condemned because we are asking the people of this country to watch the pronouncement of the Secretary of State? We are asking the people of this country to examine it and if it falls short of popular demands to criticise it, fearlessly and to hold meetings and to attend those meetings in large numbers. "Large numbers" is italicised by the Bengalee. It is a crime, a new crime to hold meetings where "large numbers" attend. It used not to be so in the past but it has become a crime now! I will go on reading another passage from this article:—
THE REALLY GREAT DANGER
"Let us now pass on to the consideration of the circular. The tone is pessimistic. It is even worse: it is that of the alarmist who raises the signal note of warning, as if we were on the eve of a great danger."