From 50 Years Ago: Congress and Jan Sangh.

With the General Elections due to be held next month, it was natural that the plenary session of the Congress at Patna should have been converted into the election campaign for the Congress party... Pandit Nehru was emphatic that socialism would ultimately come through, not only in India but the world over…

More significant, perhaps, was not so much Pandit Nehru’s tirade against caste and casteism, but the applause which it brought from his audience. Surely, in attacking caste as the enemy of national integration, Panditji could not have in mind the Swatantra party primarily. Though Jan Sangh didn’t figure much in the speeches, there is evidence in plenty that this is the party which is offering the strongest opposition to the Congress in the north. The inference is also inescapable that the Congress has little confidence that the appeal of the Jan Sangh could be effectively overcome by playing up the evils of caste or presenting the Congress thesis on national inte-gration. Something more powerful was needed.