The Congress was angry that no Indian was included in this body, appointed to look into the administrative future of India, even though there was an Indian in the British Parliament. The party therefore decided to give a fitting response to the arrogance of the government. 

This was something the British Government had not anticipated. They knew the Congress would oppose, but thought the liberals and the Muslim League would support the commission. 

The Congress annual session in Madras in 1927 exhorted the people to boycott the Simon Commission. The Congress also decided to appoint a committee to study and submit a report on the basic structure of a suitable administrative set up for India. 

Motilal Nehru, a leading legal luminary in India was the chairman of this committee. Another significant development in the congress session was a resolution, moved by Jawaharlal Nehru, which declared in no uncertain terms that ‘Purna Swaraj’ (complete independence) was the Congress Party’s goal.

The decisions of the Congress session and the declaration that ‘Purna Swaraj’ is its goal enthused the leftists of India as well as the youth. The appointment of Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and S. Quereshi as secretaries of the Congress committee was received with great applause all over the country. 

And the decision of all the political parties to stand united in their opposition to the Simon Commission was another turn which set the atmosphere in the country towards a crucial confrontation with the British regime.

On February 3, 1928 the Simon Commission arrived in India to receive black flags of protests and boycotting everywhere it went. “Go Back Simon Commission” was the slogan which it had to face.