IN CORRESPONDENCE AND CAMARADERIE ... 2

So far as the differences between Gandhiji and Netaji post-Haripura, Netaji managed them well enough, for it was Gandhiji who created all the undemocratic trouble-mongering. Netaji was accommodating throughout but not Gandhiji who remained ever intransigent when it came to differences with Netaji. He subverted the democratic process after reposing faith in it and proceeding along with it till it brought about his being sidelined by popular mandate. Today, when we say that Indira Gandhi subverted democracy before, during and after the Emergency, we ought to remember that she was the legatee of the Father of the Nation who had initiated and ever maintained the same during his dictatorial extra-constitutional reign over the Indian National Congress till Subhas Chandra briefly sent him on the back foot from which he fouled his way back into the fray, all the while plotting the downfall and ouster of the young hero from the national political scene to preserve his hegemony over the state of affairs.

Historical assessment has to be impartial and not based on emotionalism or institutionalisation of preeminent personalities. The nation counts first ever and never the leader, however great in stature by mass base or international recognition, when he constantly goes awry with neither plan nor programme nor consistency in his approach to the dynamics of the movement for freedom.

I understand you, dear friend, very much and you have been a great influence in moderating my views and outlook on life, teaching me the joy of harmonious appreciation of perspectives and personalities. You have taught me how to look upon these seminal beings as treasures of our land, especially in the light of the fact that we have been so fortunate in being blessed by the appearance of so many of them amongst us when other nations can barely say a similar thing about their history. As Swami Agehananda Bharati had once said mischievously that from Yajnavalkya to Vivekananda we have had 'an unwholesome surfeit of inspiration'.

But debate and deliberation will continue for it is not only healthful but is actually a prime element of the democratic way of living and analysis thereof a sure way of learning from past mistakes to avoid future error. So far as leaving the group is concerned, it is unfortunate but at times inevitable considering divergences of temperament, but one is always free to rejoin if one wishes, especially when one has laboured with love so long to give it life.

I whole agree with you on the necessity of coordination of wills to bring about significant change in society. We must learn to set aside petty differences of personal opinion and pull in our might to lend vibrancy and life to our collective endeavour for social good. We ought to remember that even today as free citizens we lack the power of combination, so very essential for constructive work for the commonweal, and that it is high time we learn to combine in the wake of such understanding. Else, how on earth are we to build our common destiny as a nation when we cannot sustain ourselves as a group of like-minded individuals for more than a moment of, so to say, rough ideological disagreement?

Anyhow, Mother knows best, but our efforts will not wane in the absence of stalwarts who choose to abstain from participation. Rather, we will now have to work that much harder to do the infilling of information to lend an equal vibrancy to the group as before. And in this we shall not be found wanting.

Sir, you are my teacher in tolerance, acceptance and harmonious co-existence. And above all, for that emerald lesson you have given : Value them who have been given as free gift unto us by the Mother who has been so benevolent in showering Her graces on our blessed motherland.

And that is pertinent as well for who are we alone to judge everything today? Let generations hence judge them as they will and let each generation pass its own verdict on these leading lights of men, these 'choice and master spirits of our age'. Our job will be to hand them down as much data as we can discover for posterity to cherish. We are the witnesses, we are the participants and we are the passers on of this great drama of human existence unto our progeny and they unto theirs till 'the last syllable of recorded time'.