To me it seems significant that some of the workers very closely associated with the Congress are Indian Christians and I am sure my friends will bear testimony to the fact that we too have produced leaders who have fully identified themselves with Indian Nationalism. We owe our allegiance to the Flag, not only because we are Indian Christians, but because we have been always well treated in the past by the Indian National Congress. In fact it would be no exaggeration to suggest that we have been better treated by the Indian National Congress than by those with whom we are affiliated from the standpoint of religion. I take this opportunity of reminding the Hon’ble Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru of an occasion which happened in 1938 when I had been called to the Punjab by Dr. S. K. Dutta to do a little service in connection with a function at the Forman Christian College. At that time the University Union at Allahabad had arranged for an address by me on Prohibition and they insisted that I should speak on this subject because shortly before that I had visited Salem in Madras through the kind offices of Rajaji. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru] had agreed to preside over the function, but had forgotten the subject on which I was expected to speak. At his request, first of all I explained my ideas about the duties of minorities when asked by him to put before the audience our views regarding the minority question. He was to have left for Delhi within half an hour, but he forgot everything about it and in consequence missed the train. After I had spoken, Pandit Nehru told me that what the community had stood for would be remembered by the Indian National Congress when it came to power. Within three or four days I received reports of a certain case of injustice suffered by Indian Christians in some villages. I went to the villages and found out that the charges were true. I placed before Pandit Nehru the information which I gathered and in seven days’ time the whole matter was settled. In that way our religious liberties were restored.
