Current Thought. April-June 1939

In the opinion of the Rightist leaders the President of the Indian National Congress is an ornamental figure-head comparable to the exalted but virtually impotent position of the monarch under the British Constitution. [...] Again speaking constitutionally the position of the Presdent of the Indian National Congress is similar to that of the President of the United States who appoints the members of his own cabinet who again hold office during the pleasure of the President. [...] Whether in actual practice the President will be the master or a convenient tool in the hands of his Working Committee is a question whose answer will depend on many factors the most important of which will be the tact and personality of the President on the one hand and that of the members of the Working Committee on the other. [...] For in respect of the amount that comes out through the barrier and is allowed to be consumed the loss of the consumers in terms of higher expenditure is just offset by the gain of the favoured producers ; but as against the loss sustained in view of the amount that ceases to be produced there is no such offset. [...] The case for the nationalisation of land becomes unanswerable when the private of ner has ceased to perform any positive function ; the object of the nation:lisation is to stop the pace of under-capitalisation 28THE NATIONALISATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND and exhaustion of lands and to improve the resources qualitatively and quantitatively of production.