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The Swatantra Party was a National classical liberal political committee from 1959 to 1974. The Swatantra Party was a centre-right political party in India. It was founded on June 19, 1959, by C. Rajagopalachari, who had been a leader of the Indian National Congress. N.G. Ranga was also involved in the freedom struggle against British rule, becoming one of its leaders from Madras Province. During this time, he was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly representing the Araku constituency on behalf of the Swatantra Party. In this article, we will learn about the leader of the Swatantra Party and the leadership qualities of N.G. Ranga.
History of N.G. Ranga
N. G. Ranga was born in a low-income family in Andhra Pradesh, where his father was a farmer who struggled to make ends meet. The family was so poor that Ranga could not afford to go to school and had to work at a young age. N. G. Ranga began his career as the first principal of Guntur National College in 1923. He studied Economics at the London School of Economics and returned to India in 1929, after which he joined as a professor of economics at Andhra University, where he remained till 1937. His command strengthened his position as a significant provincial leader over the chosen agricultural organisations. Later, liberal farm leader Sharad Joshi would follow in the footsteps of N G Ranga.
He was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1937 from the Tenali constituency. He was re-elected from the Tenali constituency in the same year but resigned his seat soon after on health grounds. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Madras Province in 1946 as an independent candidate and subsequently joined the Indian National Congress.
N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU)
N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) was established under Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University (APAU) on June 12 1964, through the APAU Act 1963. In 1972, it changed its name to Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, after the name of a well-known Parliamentarian Acharya N G Ranga, had the vision to spread modern agriculture education and research in India. The idea behind this division was the need to have more institutions offering higher education in agriculture.
Thinking and fundamental principles of the Swatantra party
The Swatantra Party is first and primarily passionate about social justice and equal equality for all people, irrespective of faith, race, occupation, or political leanings.
The party thought that the people’s progress, prosperity, and happiness could be achieved by increasing individual freedom and reducing state intrusion. State involvement should be replaced with developing the Indian tradition of aiding others.
In particular, the side believes that the state should conform to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and compensate persons whose land is confiscated for public use.
It also considered that citizens should have the freedom to teach their children as they saw fit. It acknowledged the need to enhance food production and aimed to provide farmers with unrestricted land rights and agricultural production incentives.
It was required to minimise the state’s role in industry to the bare minimum needed to supplement sources such as private enterprise and railways. It intended to remove restrictions on trade and commerce. However, it is committed against unjust prices, benefits, and dividends.
It is thought that growing capital goods, consumer goods, and rural and small enterprises should be given equal weight. In terms of taxation and public spending, it advocated for austerity. It argued that revenue should be adequate to fund governmental administration and social and economic activities. However, it should not inhibit the production of capital and private investment.
Additionally, the government should avoid accruing deficits and foreign debt that exceed the country’s ability to repay. In particular, it opposed the expansion of bureaucracy that was superfluous.
Failure of Swatantra Party
The Swatantra party failed because there was still no place for a centrist party in Indian politics. The Swatantra Party is based on freedom and individual liberty principles, opposing government intervention in personal lives or business activities unless necessary to maintain order. The Swatantra Party supports small government, private enterprise, and trade, defending personal freedoms such as free speech and religious tolerance. The Swatantra Party believes that a free market economy will benefit everyone. It opposes central planning because it believes that such planning leads to inefficient use of resources while also discouraging individual creativity and initiative. The main objective of this party was to oppose the Congress’s socialist policies, which opposed his earlier beliefs as a Gandhian liberal nationalist. N.G. Ranga left Congress and formed Swatantra Party because he had become disillusioned with its socialism based on the Fabian model, which he believed did not fit into India’s socio-economic structure and political set-up. In June 1955, he organised a conference on land reforms at Guntur along with Potti Sriramulu and T. Prakasam under the auspices of Andhra Jana Sangham, a precursor to the Swatantra Party. He was also one of the signatories to the Andhra Pradesh Manifesto drafted by R. Kuppuswamy in 1956, demanding linguistic reorganisation of India as per the Nehru Report.
Conclusion
In the end, the Swatantra Party failed to defeat the Indian National Congress. Though it enjoyed popular backing, its inability to maintain a cohesive political platform and well-defined ideology contributed to its demise. N. G. Ranga was a political leader and the founder of the Swatantra Party and was instrumental in maintaining India’s non-aligned status during the Cold War. Upon the eager shoulders of stalwarts like N.G. Ranga rests the hopes of all pro-liberalisation Indians who long for a true alternative to Congress’s omnipresent socialism. This article gave you short information on the Swatantra party and Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University.
