he stands. Parliamentary democracy is not immune to corruption, as you who remember Tammany Hall and the Mayor of Chicago should know. I do not think a free India will function like the other countries of the world. We have our own forms to contribute.”
I said I would like to talk to him for a few moments about Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian leader who had escaped to Axis territory. I told Gandhi that I was rather shocked when I heard that he had sent a telegram of condolence to Bose’s mother on the receipt of the report, since proved false, that Bose had died in an airplane accident.
“Do you mean,” Gandhi asked, “because I had responded to news that proved to be false?”
“No,” I said, “but that you regretted the passing of a man who went to Fascist Germany and identified himself with it.”
“I did it,” Gandhi asserted, “because I regard Bose as a patriot of patriots. He may be misguided. I think he is misguided. I have often opposed Bose. Twice I kept him from becoming president of Congress. Finally he did become president, although my views often differed from his. But suppose he had gone to Russia or to America to ask aid for India. Would that have made it better?”
“Yes, of course,” I said. “It does make a difference to whom you go.”
