representing all shades of opinion from all parts of the country. Local delegates could always outvote the country. At the place Mr. Mehta was the uncrowned king. So the situation was clear. On questions where there might be sharp division, the local power could certainly succeed. It would ultimately mean the Congress stultifying itself. Arguing in this manner the Nationalist Party met in a a Conference and concerted measures to solve the problem of recording the country's opinion. Mr. Arabinda Ghose presided at the Conference and most of the prominent Nationlist leaders took part in the deliberations. The conclusions they arrived at, and the methods they adopted, looked then and look even to-day, a bit too punctilious. They had always a course open to them to make their own proposals, and if defeated, to appeal to the country for help at the next recording of opinion. They would not take it. They decided to follow a policy of obstruction from the start. Tit for tat was the phrase used. “Our moderate brethren have cajoled the Congress into Surat to get their opinions endorsed by freely flooding into the pandal their own men. We shall adopt an
Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/171
