Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the one who should have been the Prime Minister of independent India. Then India's fate would have been changed. He was the perfect foil for the perfidious Jinnah. But for Gandhiji's intervention, India would have had him as Prime Minister. Alas, that was not to be and we are in the sorry mess that we are !
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the Prime Minister elect, 11 votes out of 13, of the Congress Working Committee and India was set on her course to adequate recovery before Jawaharlal Nehru decided to stand apart in such a case from the scenario and the Mahatma relented. This was the single biggest blunder that Gandhiji made and the result inevitably followed.
Pandit Nehru was a moderate, a liberal, a politician too gentle to deal with the harsh realities of communal politics that prevailed then, and the blunders he made in his enlightened liberalism, an ideal too far-fetched and lofty for the turbulent times, caused irreparable damage to the emerging nation.
History had given us twice the opportunity to have a strong leader at the helm of affairs and twice the Mahatma's intervention thwarted us of that good fortune. He foiled Netaji and he foiled the Sardar.
The country stands now where it stands and we have to take it forward. Come, let us contribute mightily to this sublime endeavour of rebuilding the motherland and bring to fruition the aspirations of the martyrs to her freedom.
Written by Sugata Bose
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