A ‘BALANCE SHEET …’

Until the start of 1950, the interim government was carrying all within and before it. That critical year though, as this chapter shows, was the crucible that saw non-Congress members leave the cabinet, while the party's turf war came to the fore, outlining the upcoming electoral battle. These ideological tussles and individual contests inside the party and the cabinet are explored here, with the India–Pakistan Minority Pact providing an analogy to wider socio-cultural tensions. That year was also climactic for Nehru–Patel differences on Congress organisation and China, which this time ‘were papered over’ by Patel's death. Within a week of the new year, there were ominous signs when the Faridabad township project was effectively trifurcated between cooperatives (1,000 houses), contractors (2,000) and East Punjab public works (1,000). These houses were meant to be ready by June, but now, there were apprehensions all around. There was some ambiguity around the coming of the republic, which had been passive and somewhat inert in its immediate substance. After all, the premiers, with their ministries, were to continue under a new name – chief minister – and under a different oath of allegiance. In the old-new central parliament, very few women and Scheduled Caste members had come in and the Akalis had refused to accept this constitution, while the Hindu right-wing groups had ‘declared their condemnation’.

Moreover, the challenges coming in the last days of the old constitution cast a shadow over the first days of the new. From London, D. N. Pritt, the lawyer-legislator, was making representations on the summary death sentence by a military court in Hyderabad to ‘108 peasants and communists’. Pritt held that the said trial was rather a court martial, as the advocate-general acted for both the prosecution and the defence, while mercy petitions did not reach the nizam's privy council. Their executions were arranged for 23 January, so as to prevent the appeals from reaching the Supreme Court, and Pritt requested the central government to stop any executions before 26 January. Especially highlighted were the death sentences for two children, one of whom was 11-year-old Dina Lingayya.