Former TNCC president Kumari Ananthan on Wednesday said that Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, indeed wanted the Congress party to continue its functioning even after Independence.
Referring to the views expressed by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her Cabinet colleagues on Mahatma Gandhi’s intention to disband Congress party after Independence, Ananthan said that Mahatma Gandhi had written a letter a few hours before his assassination which was released by his secretary Pyarelal. In that letter, Gandhi had said that due to the various struggles of the Congress party, India had attained political freedom; but the country was yet to attain socio-economic freedom. As such, the Congress party should make itself as an organisation to serve the people.
Ananthan also said that Gandhi, in his letter written on January 27, 1948, described Congress as the oldest political organisation of the country and it could not be allowed to go extinct and also had said that the Congress would live as long as India lives.
Besides, on his last day on January 30, Gandhi had asked his secretary Pyarelal whether the suggestions made by him were inducted into the draft constitution of the party.
By these incidents, it was clear that Gandhi had, indeed, wanted Congress to continue its functioning, Ananthan said.