The Indian Problem The latest announcement by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,
President of the Indian National Congress, is as uncom- promising as such an utterance could well be. The chief purpose of the Congress, he repeats, is to abolish the new constitution, not to work it, a statement which goes far to justify Lord Zetland's observation that those who express such views are in no strong position to complain of the British Government's unconciliatory attitude. It is far from certain that Mr. Nehru's views are those of the whole of Congress. There are good reasons for supposing that most of the elected members of the Provincial Assemblies are anxious to take office, and there is much to be said for giving them another opportunity of doing so. That would involve the summoning of the Legislatures in those provinces, or one of them, in which minority Ministries are in office. The Congress majority would at once defeat the Ministers on a division, and on the Ministry's resignation the Congress leader would be invited to take office. The question is whether the discussions of the last three months have suffi- ciently assured co-operation between the Governor and Ministers to lead Congress to accept what they refused in April. That can only be proved by putting the matter to the test, and since the Legislatures must in any case be summoned in August to pass the provincial budgets there may be clear advantage in summoning them now, before a delay which has so far not been without its value becomes so protracted as to make for bitterness.
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