Swatantra Party
The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party that existed from 1959 . Still having members in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Prof. Babu Joseph from Kottayam, National executive member of Swatantra Party who attended the meeting of 50th year of Commemorating Swatantra Party which is held in Mumbai on August 1, 2009. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly socialist and statist outlook. Swatantra (Freedom) stood for a market-based economy.The party was thus favoured by some traders and industrialists, but at the state-level its leadership was dominated by the traditional wealthy classes such as zamindars (landlords) and formerly princely states. Its membership was not restricted on the basis of religion, unlike the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh. In 1960, Rajagopalachari and his colleagues drafted a 21-point manifesto detailing why Swatantra Party had to be formed, even though they were formerly Congressmen and associates of Nehru during the struggle for independence. The Prime Minister was highly critical of Swatantra, dubbing the party as belonging to "the middle ages of lords, castles and zamindars.