PRICE OF WORLDLY SEATS

Grossly Exorbitant

MR. SURENDRANATH DWIVEDI has mentioned this interesting reaction of the well-known Indian thinker, Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan (1902-1979) in his book “Quest for Socialism.” Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan had turned down the proposal of his candidature for presidentship of India in 1967 because he did not consider it ‘a very honourable situation to read speeches prepared by somebody else’. “Please keep me off this. I am not interested even in the highest office. Somebody else would prepare my speech and I would have to deliver it as my own or my government’s. I do not consider this a very honourable situation.

So please excuse me,” he said to his socialist colleague, Mr. Surendranath Dwivedi. No doubt he could not bear to contemplate such limitations of his mental and moral freedom.

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Renunciation of freedom—mental, moral, emotional and physical is too great a price to pay for anything purely material.

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Similar was the reaction of the former Vice President of India, Mr. Hidayatullah. After having resigned from vice-presidentship, he remarked:

“I am feeling as free as a bird.”

High positions of power have always been objects of envy for the people. However, these coveted seats lose their charm as soon as they come within our grasp. The price we pay for them is our freedom— mental, moral, emotional and physical—and surely renunciation of such freedom is too great a price to pay for anything so purely material.