"The Liaquat–Bhulabhai Pact Is Detrimental to Hindu Interests"

[p. 96] “THE LIAQUAT BHULABHAI pact and the conditions under which alone the Viceroy is said to be willing to consider it further, are not yet definitely published or even owned by the parties. The news has served no other purpose upto this time than to provide the Press with stunts to feed their readers curiosity sumptuously even in these rationing days. Nevertheless, if we take the reports that are persistently appearing in the Press as reflecting some substantial truth then we cannot but condemn any such pact as wholly detrimental to the interest of the Hindus in particular and the Indian Nation in general.

"It does not amount even to a caricature, of a National Government in as much as it has not persuaded the Viceroy to render the Executive responsible to the Legislature. The Congressites with the Leaguers perched on their shoulders are trying to enter that very Executive Council which was declared by the Congress Press and Platform as ‘an anti-national den of imperialist schemers.’ What new element is introduced there that has fascinated Shriyut Bhulabhai and his followers so much as to enter it in spite of any special permission by the Congress? Are not many front leaders of the Congress denouncing these parliamentary activities as amounting to disloyalty to the Congress Commands? Have they forgotten that only the other day they had denounced those patriotic gentlemen who assumed the responsibility of conducting the Government of the country in the interest of the country itself with such choice epithets—I am quoting from the Congressite criticism itself—as self-seekers, job-hunters, jo-hukums and even traitors? Judged by this your own Congressite standard what else are you to-day, but job hunters, and self-seekers? If you justify your action by the principle that capturing political power and thus preventing it from falling into worse hands is a better policy than a futile boycott of it, well then, those patriots who entered the Executive Council stand justified by your own principle.

"This was the very reason which made me call upon the Hindu Sanghatanists to support the Hindu ministers who joined the Executive Council in those dark days when the Congress had anathematised all cooperation with the Government except perhaps in securing military contracts which enabled them to pocket millions! I found that the Hindu leaders nominated by the Viceroy were highly patriotic, independent of the Congress and therefore, truly nationalistic Because their nationalism was genuine they could of course be depended upon to safeguard legitimate interests of the Hindus as those of any other community. But above all they were not debased enough to disown their Hindu race and ancestry but kept boldly and proudly maintaining that they were Hindus. All these reasons drew behind them the support of the Hindu Sanghatanist public which invested them with a representative character.

[p. 97] “Nor did the Hindu Councillors betray the trust which we placed in them. To cite only one example to illustrate the difference between an Executive Council formed of such Hindu members and an Executive Council formed of a Congressite-League Party, let us remember the high tide of the Pakistani movement which swept over the country just after the release of Gandhiji and which he wanted to ride to realise his fad of Hindu-Moslem Unity. To resist it the Hindu Mahasabha launched an anti-Pakistani movement. At that time these Hindu Councillors in this Executive Council fearlessly issued statements, delivered speeches, attended the Akhand Bharat Leaders’ Conference and denounced the Pakistan proposal as highly detrimental to the very existence “of our nation, just as the two Hindu Ministers in Sind and those in the North Western Province and the Punjab did. None of them fought shy of resisting the aggressive and intolerable demand of the Moslems as well as the cowardly surrender of Gandhiji and his satellites in the Congress Camp.

"These pronouncements of the Hindu Councillors and Ministers added enormous weight and influence to the anti-Pakistan movement and enabled it to roll back that first Pakistani tide and forced Gandhiji to go back to Wardha frustrated in his evil design to bring about the Pakistan pact with Mr. Jinnah. The Congressites clearly saw that the Hindu Sanghatanists could grow so powerful as to work like a thorn in their sides mainly because, the Hindu Sanghatanists caught the opportunity of capturing as much political power as possible in the Central Government and other key positions in the political machine. This policy of “Hinduising all Politics' as much as we can, which the Hindu Sanghatanist public strenuously followed in those days in spite of the campaign of vilification launched against me and my comrades by the whole of the Congress Press has thus been justified by actual events.

"Just visualise that Bhulabhai and Liaquat Ali at that time had formed the Executive Council on the lines of their present pact with Gandhiji's blessings in their pockets. They would have certainly issued a common statement under their own signatures, calling it a Hindu-Moslem Statement to the effect that they all agreed to the principle of vivisection of India.

“What could not be done then owing to the tactics of the Hindu Sanghatanists is now being surreptitiously attempted through the Liaquat Bhulabhai Pact. This is a long stride towards the realisation of Pakistan. The Congressites who were elected by the Hindus to protect their birth-right have betrayed the Hindus. In their pact a minority of about 25% is given an equal representation in the Central Government with the Hindu majority which forms about 75% of the total population. Nothing could be more treacherous, anti-national and anti-Hindu. By such pacts and such slavish surrender they are not only strengthening the hands of the Moslems who would soon demand more as soon as you yield so far but the hands of Britain too.

"I exhort all Hindu Sanghatanists to make a point blank declaration and stick to it through thick and thin that they shall never allow the Moslems willingly in any department of political life any more representation than 22% or whatever is justified by their exact population. The League of Nations which represented the wisdom of almost all prominent nations of the world has laid down that no minority should be allowed any concession so as to enable it to claim equality with the 'National majority which in fact forms the Nation."

[p. 98] "I have voiced above the views of the Hindu Sanghatanists in general regarding the Bhulabhai-Liaquat Pact. The legitimate Hindu interests which any genuine nationalism itself ought to demand are, far safer in the hands of the present Hindu ministers in this Executive Council than they ever could be in those of the Bhulabhai-Liaquat Congress clique. Consequently, no change should be effected simply to suit this pact and the Government must not remove the present Hindu ministers especially simply to make room for the Congressites who publicly repudiate any responsibility to safeguard the special interest of the Hindus."