द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

236 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE I pleaded strongly against this viewpoint and urged the capture of the official Congress machinery in place of boycott. With regard to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact I made the following criticism:

1. The Pact had gone into many petty and unnecessary details but had avoided the main issue of Swaraj.
2. The Conference was really no Round Table Con- ference because there was no finality about the decisions of the Conference and the whole matter would be considered de novo by the British Parlia- ment. In a real Round Table Conference, as the South Africans and the Irish had, the decisions are always final and binding on both parties. The name Round Table Conference had been used only to hood- wink foolish Indian politicians.
3. The Indian delegates to the Round Table Conference would be selected not by the Indian people but by the British Government.
4. The Conference would not be confined to the repre- sentatives of the two belligerent parties. Non-descripts of all kinds who had nothing to do with the fight for Swaraj, would be there to throw obstacles in the path of the real Nationalists.
5. The proposal of a Federation between nationalist British India and the autocratic Indian Princes was an absurd one. The Princes or their nominees would act as a dead weight against the national forces.
6. ‘Safeguards’ take away what ‘responsibility’ gives. It was a gross error on the part of the Mahatma to talk of ‘safeguards’ in the interests of India. The only safeguard that the Indians want is liberty. The actual ‘safeguards’ are demanded by Britishers and are against the interests of Indians. It is wrong to induce the Indian people to accept such safeguards by saying that they are in the interests of India.
7. The amnesty provided under the Pact was inadequate because the following classes of political prisoners were excluded: (a) The state prisoners and ‘detenus’ imprisoned without trial, of whom there were about one thousand in Bengal alone.