The Warrior and the Saint 163The whole country is waiting for you—if you lose this favorable chance
through hesitation you will never get it back. You will be deprived of
the strength that you may get from Bengal, on the other hand the other
side will all the time try to sap your strength. Do not by any means
commit this big mistake. I am saying this not for your own sake but for
the sake of the country. Please demand firmly of Mahatmaji to let you
have his final answer at an early date. If he procrastinates then you may
give up your post on that ground.^64On April 15, Subhas wrote to Jawahar that he planned to make “a last
effort at settlement through a personal talk with Gandhiji.” Their re-
cent duel via marathon letters notwithstanding, Bose wanted Nehru’s
advice on how to proceed. “Will it be possible for you to run up here
for a few hours?” he asked Jawahar from Jamadoba. “I cannot say no to
you,” Jawahar replied on April 17; and when the two met on April 19,
there was no bitterness. “Jawahar was here yesterday,” Subhas wrote to
the Mahatma on April 20. “We had a long discussion on the present
situation. I was glad to find that our views concurred.”^65
Gandhi’s obduracy could not be broken, however. The Mahatma ar-
rived in Sodepur near Calcutta on April 27, after suf fering a po lit i cal
defeat at Rajkot. He held two days of direct talks with Bose. Gandhi
had sensibly asked Patel to stay away from Calcutta. Nehru, who as
usual was staying at 1 Woodburn Park as Sarat’s guest, joined the con-
versations. Gandhi continued to refuse to suggest names for the Work-
ing Committee, saying that would mean an “imposition” on Bose.^66
Once it was clear that an impasse had been reached, Bose submitted his
resignation as Congress president, “in an entirely helpful spirit,” at the
meeting of the All- India Congress Committee in Calcutta on April 29,1939.^67 Nehru brought a resolution asking the AICC not to accept
Bose’s resignation; he called upon Bose to renominate the old Working
Committee and nominate two new members of his choice to fill vacan-
cies. Since Bose wanted a more representative Working Committee
than that, Nehru withdrew his resolution and Bose’s resignation took
effect. A Gandhian, Rajendra Prasad, was asked to serve as interim
president. Tension was running high outside the meeting venue in Wel-