Friday, November 1, 2013

Patel and Nehru , Then Foes, now BFF ??

I wonder why people's memory and history keeps changing. 

It was known that Patel and Nehru didn't go well with each other, now it seems they were the BFFs ?? 

JLN as first PM  was a mistake Mahatma made. In 1946 , its written in history with records,  that 12 or more,  out of 15 PCCs  nominated Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel as the President of Congress and thus first PM of India. None of PCCs did nominate Nehru , clearly the majority was in favor of Sardar Patel. 

This might have caused the neo-feudalistic Nehru , to hate  Patel who was from agrarian background, and the Feudal Arrogance of Nehru could not imagine himself  to be none other than the Supreme, he would have played dirty games even if Mahatma were to on the top seat.  He coerced Mahatma who too was unfair and wrong at least in this episode of the history, for asking Patel to withdraw the candidature.It was the first stab on democracy.

Dr Rajendra Prasad once noted  about this, that Mahatma had once again sacrificed his trusted lieutenant in favor of the ‘glamorous Nehru’.  Mahatma too was kind of selfish at some point, as he  always knew that  Patel would always obey him, and Nehru may not. What would happen to Mahatma if one of his lieutenant itself turned against him ? What would happened to the 'Mahatma' image ?  This question might have made him do that injustice to Patel also he feared that Nehru could split the congress if he was not given a chance to become the first PM,  which would cause British to delay the transfer of power, and he knew Patel wouldn't do that!

And a few more in the then "High-Command"  supported Nehru for wrong reasons, who regretted it later of' course!. Its interesting to read  Azad, Rajagopalachary as well, both sounded confessing when they wrote  “It was a mistake on my part that I did not support Sardar Patel.  I can never forgive myself when I think that if I had not committed these mistakes, perhaps the history of the last ten years would have been different.” and  “Undoubtedly it would have been better if Nehru had been asked to be the Foreign Minister and Patel made the Prime Minister" , It becomes more interesting after realizing that both were known foes of SVBP. 

One thing for sure , If Mr Patel was the first PM , few of the problems would not have haunted our country for these many years - 
Kashmir and China, Punjab insurgency, (Indira Gandhi , would have been just Indira Khan or Indira Feroz) 
IPKF Debacle (if Patel was first PM, Rajiv would have been just another pilot in IAF or IA), 
Telengana,  if Patel had his way to the full , the history of Andhra would have been different , it was the limited power he had that forced him to stop at just merging the Nizam's state to Indian Union. It was proven that he had a better understanding of HYD and Andhra who opted for the military option , compared to a UNO stand of Nehru.  (I wonder what it would have been now , if Nehru had his way of approaching UNO for HYD)
And the history, and the present state of the nation would have been different,  for better,,,  much better !!  . 

Its funny to see the heirs of the Nehru's semi-monarchy Congress praising Patel,  who Nehru hated to the core,  due the fact that Patel was the first choice of  the people of India. 
It may be as a thanks to the monarchy that Nehru's family enjoys today is the result of Patel's loyalty (sometimes its not good to be too loyal)  !!