Chapter 4C: The art of a deal. Beyond money is power. And beyond power ? Are money and power interchangeable ? How are non-profits controlled ? How do you really control a trust? What is the legal structure of a political party ? Who vote to appoint a leader ? How ensures the voting is fair ? What gives a leader authority ?
The reality that few understood is that the Indian National Congress was really just a club – an association of people. Akin to the Lutyen Club of Delhi. Or the Bombay Club. There was NO registered entity. Even to play football or cricket – you need an empire. You need rules and regulations.
The British started this process around 1850. Three acts were put in place. The Joint Stock Companies Act of 1850. The Societies Act of 1860. The Indian Trust Act of 1882. The Indian Partnership Act of 1932 came much later.
The idea was simple. Proprietorship business was the person himself. Schools and clubs registered under the Societies Act. Places of worship and charitable bodies registered under the Trust Act. Joint stock companies registered under the Companies Act. In 1913, the formal Companies Act 1913 was promulgated. The first office of the Registrar of Companies was located in Lahore. Others followed in Calcutta, Madras and finally Mumbai.
But the Indian National Congress was not registered. Even Bombay Club and Orient Club were registered under the Societies Act. Nor was the Muslim League. They had no constitution. They had no regulations. They were a concept. The name for an annual conclave. When we set up PanIIT in 2003, it was similar. It was just a name. And we held a 2000 person conclave with a Rs 50 million budget at Pragati Maidan in Delhi with the President of India as Chief Patron. There was no entity. Thin air. Congress and Muslim League were similar. All they had was a President elected for each meeting.
The British explained to BN that such a body could not govern. It needed a constitution. Some framework. Lala Lajpatrai was President of the Congress session at Calcutta in September 1920. He was then helping create Lahores earliest joint stock companies – Laxmi Insurance and Punjab National Bank. The people helping him were two lawyers from Chennai. BN liked the drafting of Chennai lawyers over that of the Parsis in Bombay. One of them was C. Vijayaraghavachariar.
C. Vijayaraghavachariar (1852–1944) was given a mandate by BN through the Lion of Punjab to draft a constitution for the Congress. In BNs zoo, he was the “Lion of South India,” – a close friend of his personal lawyer Swaminathan (whose daughters were Comrade Lakshmi Saigal of the Indian National Army and Mrinalini Sarabhai). To aide the task, in the next session of the Congress at Nagpur in December 1920, he was made President.
“Elected” President would be inaccurate. There were no rules and he who wrote the cheque made the rules. BN had paid for the tent and the catering.
