In June 1940, Quaid-e-Azam and M. A. Jinnah had made some proposals, for bringing cooperation between the League and the Government. In these proposals, Jinnah had demanded that the Muslim leadership should be treated equally in the matter of authority and control in the Central and Provincial Governments.
The Viceroy had rejected all the proposals made by Quaid-e-Azam. But neither Quaid-e- Azam nor the British Government was disheartened by the lack of any agreement between the Congress and the League or between the Govem-ment and the League or Congress. On 8 August, 1940, the British Government made a significant pronouncement which came to be known as the August Offer.
The Offer contained the following points :
The British Government had decided not to postpone either the expansion of the Executive Council or the establishment of War Advisory Council which would more closely associate the public opinion with the conduct of war.
To remove the doubts of the Indian people it stated, no constitutional change, interim or final, will be undertaken by Parliament unless there had been antecedent agreement not only between the geographical units but also between the main social elements both as to manner of framing the constitution and the constitution itself. The safeguard of the rights of minorities and untouchable communities was also assured.
The work of constitution framing was not possible during the war. The representative body for this purpose would be set up after the conclusion of the war.
It was also assured that the Great Britain still offered Dominion Status to India. In the beginning, the Muslim League accepted the offer, as they were happy with the assurance that no future constitution would be framed without their approval. However, they made it clear that the partition of India was the only solution to future constitutional problems. Later, both the Muslim League and Congress rejected the offer. Congress wanted the transfer of power to occur at once; the problem of establishing Hindu-Muslim parity was to be postponed until after the war.
The British wanted to win the war first and transfer the power afterwards, while the Muslim League insisted on an immediate Hindu-Muslim settlement. Thus, when the Viceroy formed a National Defence Council in 1941, Quaid-e- Azam ordered all members of the Muslim League to resign from it.
