Fazl-e-Umar — Page 248
Fazle Umar 248 “What the Khalifa of Qadian has said is well worth reading and listening to. He has urged the leaders to work together in amity and co-operation. His words display great and surprising courage. The speeches of the conference leaders contained no stronger expressions. The eagerness to secure the freedom of four hundred million Indians which is expressed in the Khalifa’s address is not matched even in the speeches of Mr Gandhi. ” No agreement could be reached in the Simla conference, mainly due to the firm refusal of the representatives of the Indian National Congress to recognise the Muslim League as the sole political representative of the Muslims. The claim of the Muslim League that it was the sole representative of the Muslims had been demonstrably established in the elections to the legislative bodies in India. C A b I n E T M I S SIO n P L A n Under the directions of Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] the Community had throughout lent its full and enthusiastic support to the Muslim League, and contin- ued to do so throughout the troubled period that lay ahead. By the summer of 1946, when the Cabinet Mission Plan was presented to Indian leadership, even the Indian National Congress had to concede, and to reconcile itself to the position, that the Muslim League was the sole political representative of the Muslims. When the Con- gress leadership, after signifying its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan, in effect tore it up by proclaiming its own interpretation of some of its crucial clauses, which was clearly inconsistent with the language of those clauses, and the strenuous efforts of Lord Wavell to persuade Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mr Gandhi to agree to give effect to the clear meaning of those clauses were frustrated, and Prime Minister Attlee made a last minute attempt to salvage the plan through his personal intervention, the only representatives summoned by him to London were Mr Nehru and Mr Jinnah. Mr