(EDITORIAL) Will the Congress leaders be released? Nobody is pleased to see them remain in detention but when it comes to a contemporary asking whether Mr. Jinnah would first join with Mr. Gandhi in “demanding” the release of Congressmen wedded to the Resolution of August 8, a little explanation seems necessary … Mr. Gandhi says that the sting of the Resolution lay in its tail sanctioning civil disobedience but that he has now removed the sting leaving the full-length minus the tail as an absolutely innocuous exhibit in the reptile house … [L]et us seek what were the aims and objects of this portentous disquisition levelled at non-Congressmen. It was an effort to usurp the status and rights of Muslims and small minorities and by an overarching manoeuvre to try and close a bargain with the British Govern­ment under the threat of a mass uprising.…

There is nothing whatsoever to prevent the release of the Congress Working Committee if he drops the August Resolution and begins with a clean slate. Many Resolutions deemed objectionable in the fortunes of politics and declarations of war are found to contain noble sentiments. Lord Thurlow saw only one passage objectionable in Satan’s proclamation of revolt against Heaven as given in Paradise Lost…

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019