Sharma : As a young man you were attracted to the Satyashodhak Samaj, then you were attracted to the C. P.I. and then attracted towards Roy. All, one by one, you rejected, but you clung to the Congress as a child would clung to his mother. How would you explain this?
Chavan : Well, I am essentially and politically a child of the Congress movement. But I have always stuck to progressive trends and followed the progressive camps and stuck on to the congress till this day. from the beginning my political life developed with continuous rejections, changes and acceptances. But at the same time, I stuck to the congress because it was progressive.
Sharma : Are you besically a man of emotion or reason?
Chavan : I am not devoid of emotion. But I am not essentially an emotionel person. Though some decisions have been taken on the basis of emotions also. I had my doubts about Gandhiji's economic ideas but I respected him. When I heard of Gandhiji's assossination, I wept like a child. So these influences did continue. Intellectual life was one thing but basic political, national emotions and urges were always influenced by Gandhiji.
Sharma : If I put it differently, we have seen that in every-day-life of common people there is a time when there is a conflict between the head and heart. In your case, isit the heart that prevaile or is it the head that prevailes?
Chavan : I think, it is the head, For exmple all my good friends were with the Royist group, but I was emotionally involved in the Congress movement in 1939 and as such I was emotionally disturbed. But when I went back and talked to my people, I said; Ultimately I have to work with these people and if they are not going, I would be isolated. Whenever there is a conflict between the heart and head, I feel, I normally go by the head.