Video Editor: Mohd irshad Alam
- The country's first home minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel was better than Jawaharlal Nehru.
- If Patel was the PM, Pakistan wouldn't have dared to look us in the eye.
- If Patel was the PM, the state of affairs in the country would have been different.
Several narratives on Sardar Patel doing the rounds on social media are confusing us.
Katha Jor Garam Is That...
...through the world's tallest statue, that is the Statue of Unity, PM Modi wants to give Sardar Patel the respect that he deserved.
It’s not important whether the metal for the Iron Man Of India’s 182-metre-tall statue was imported from China or belongs to India. But it is important to discuss why those who play the politics of Hindutva want to own Patel who had banned the Sangh after Gandhi’s assassination.
Is Patel the Hero of Hindutva?
According to Rafiq Zakaria's book Sardar Patel and Indian Muslims, Sardar Patel had once said at a Constitution meeting:
How would we feel if treated as a minority? We Hindus who are a majority must ponder on it.
According to Bipin Chandra's book Azadi Ke Baad Ka Bharat, Sardar Patel had in 1950 said:
We are a secular nation. Every Muslim must feel that they are Indian nationals and have equal rights. If we can’t make Muslims feel that they are Indian nationals, then we are not deserving of the country’s legacy.
Many such anecdotes point to the soft corner that Sardar Patel had for the minorities.
Hue and Cry Around the Patel vs Nehru Debate
On 15 August 1947, Sardar Patel was 72 years old and on 15 December 1950, he passed away ahead of the first general elections in the country.
According to an article by columnist Aakar Patel:
Sardar Patel’s giant statue is being called the Statue of Unity because he united several provinces during India’s independence.
If we leave aside provinces like Junagarh, Hyderabad and Jammu & Kashmir, most other provinces declared themselves a part of India even before independence.
Hence statements such as if Patel was the PM, he would have done the following and the following did not happen because Patel did not become the PM, are only rhetorical.
It appears that ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the attempt to hijack Patel through Hindutva and the Nehru vs Patel debate won't be successful.
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