The Nehru Report and Muslim Rights — Page 174
[ J 74 ] concerned with matters relating to administration and not to l � gislation. It is also possible that this body should be invested with additional powers, and attached to the Go :7 ernor-General as a sort of Privy Councjl. It may also be invested with powers of arbitration in disputes relating to the constitution. In short, we should give further thought to the subject matter of the Nehru-Report ; and in order to do that, we must at once call an All-Muslim Parties Conference to which all sections of the community should be invited to send their representatives. I have been delighted to learn that some Muslim members of the Legislative As sembly have already begun the work in that direction, and it is proposed to hold such a conference in December, 1929. I think I need not, therefore, stress this point any further. I cannot, however, help drawing attention of the conveners of this conference to the fact that it would be useful to make the conference as widely representa tive as possible ; and the more generously the invitations are issued, the surer will be the success of the confer ence. It is also important that the invitations should be freely extended to the members of the opposite camp. Time for each speaker should be fixed, and the same rule should apply both to proposers and opposers. All parties should be given full opportunity to have their say. If the conference did not represent both the Nehruite and the ante-Nehruite groups of Muslim politicians, the general voice of the Muslim community would not rise strong enough. Opposition never weakens tho true cause : it rather strengthens it. Personal opinion should be subordin ated to the interests of Islam and the Muslims. If some one has a better proposal to make than our own, there is no reason why the same should be rejected. Instead of driving such a one away, we should invite him closer to. .