• Capt. Praveen Davar

Sardar Patel, the ‘Iron Man of India’, who was the country’s first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, passed away on December 15, 1950, at Bombay (now Mumbai). One of the tallest stalwarts of the freedom struggle, he has left his indelible imprint in the history of modern India for his outstanding contribution in the integration of 540 princely states and for providing the stability to the ship of the state, in its formative years, under the visionary leadership of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister.

In the last year before independence, Sardar Patel had joined the Interim government headed by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and was allocated the Home portfolio alongwith Information and Broadcasting. On August 1, 1947, Prime Minister designate Pt. Nehru wrote to him formally inviting him to join his cabinet. The Sardar wrote back: ‘My services will be at your disposal, I hope for the rest of my life and you will have unquestioned loyalty and devotion from me in the cause of which no man in India has sacrificed as much as you have done. Our combination is unbreakable and therein lies our strength.’ Again, the Deputy Prime Minister wrote in an article on 14 November 1950, Nehru’s 60th birthday: ‘Having known each other in such intimate and varied fields of activity, we have naturally grown fond of each other, our mutual affection has increased as years have advanced... how much we miss each other when we are apart...Noone knows better than myself how much he (Nehru) has laboured for his country in the last two years of our difficult existence.’ Over a decade earlier, Sardar Patel while addressing a public meeting in Allahabad in 1935 (a year before Kamala Nehru’s death and while her husband was in jail) had declared: ‘No one has rendered as much service to the peasants as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his sick wife have. For your sake he has sacrificed a life of comfort and readily shared your troubles. Your poverty infuriates him. How can we move a step without his help?’

Only a couple of years before his death, Sardar Patel was devastated when Mahatma Gandhi, the ‘Father of the Nation’, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Chitpavan Brahmin, and an alleged RSS worker, from Maharashtra. The conspiracy to kill Gandhiji had been hatched for some years by Godse and his associates, and so when the assassination took place, many vested interests put the blame on Sardar Patel as it was his Home Ministry that was responsible for protecting the Mahatma. One such instance was that of a report that appeared in The Statesman of 3 Feb, 1948 stating: ‘Sardar Patel should resign for the failure of his Security Department to protect Mahatma Gandhi. There was ample warning of brewing disaffection against Gandhiji when the bomb was thrown at his prayer meeting (that was a week earlier at the same venue of Birla House [now Tees January Marg}).’

After such reports started appearing in the press, Sardar Patel, who had already sent his resignation before the assassination of Gandhiji due to differences with the PM on some issues, reinforced it by writing to him on Feb 3, 1948: ‘My resignation is already there ...this (Gandhi’s murder) is an additional reason for my resignation...when there is a public demand, a challenge which is obviously justified, I feel I must again request you to help me.’

But the Prime Minister, his close colleague of nearly 25 years, will have none of it and wrote back to his deputy the same day: ‘With Bapu’s death, everything is changed and we have to face a different and more difficult world...I have been greatly distressed by the persistence of whispers and rumors about you and me, magnifying out of all proportion any differences we may have...we must put an end to this mischief...It is over a quarter of century since we have faced many storms and perils together. I can say with full honesty that during this period, my affection and regard for you have grown, and I donot think anything can happen to lessen this...Anyway, in the crisis that we have to face now after Bapu’s death, I think it is my duty and, if I may venture to say, yours also for us to face it together as friends and colleagues.’ Sardar Patel, who was the last person to meet the Mahatma on the fateful day, was advised by him to work in close cooperation with the Prime Minister, and hence he replied: ‘I had the good fortune to have a last talk with him for over an hour before his death and he communicated to me what had passed between you and him....His opinion also binds us both and I can assure you that I am fully resolved to approach my responsibilities and obligations in this spirit.’A few months later, in November, when again some people were trying to create differences between him and Nehru, an emotionally charged Patel stated categorically: ‘Mahatma Gandhi named Pandit Nehru as his heir and successor. Since Gandhiji’s death we have realized that our leader’s judgment was correct.’

Following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the RSS was banned and, alongwith its sarsangchalak MS Golwalkar, hundreds of RSS workers as also of Hindu Mahasabha, were put behind bars. On release from the prison but ordered to be confined to Nagpur, Golwalkar wrote to both the Prime Minister and the Home Minister on 11th August, and again later pleading to lift the ban on RSS. Pt. Nehru let the matter be dealt with by Sardar Patel who replied to Golwalkar on 11 September 1948: ‘There can be no doubt that the RSS did service to Hindu society....But the objectionable part arose when they, burning with revenge, began attacking Mussalmans. Organising the Hindus and helping them is one thing but going in for revenge for its sufferings on innocent and helpless men, women and children is quite another thing. Apart from this, their opposition to the Congress, that too of such virulence, disregarding all considerations of personality, decency or decorum, created a kind of unrest among the people. All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus....As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji... Opposition (to RSS) turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death.’

Exactly a month before Gandhiji was assassinated, on December 29, 1947, at Mehrauli, Delhi, Sardar Patel had appealed to the majority community to ‘create such an atmosphere that no Muslim may feel unsafe among you.’ But it fell on deaf ears, and again a month after the most heinous crime he reiterated, at Madras on Feb 23, 1949: ‘We in the Government have been dealing with the RSS movement. They want the Hindu Rajya or Hindu culture should be imposed by force. No Government can tolerate this. There are almost as many Muslims in this country as in the part that has been partitioned away. We are not going to drive them away. It would be an evil day if we started that game, in spite of partition and whatever happens. We must understand that they are going to stay here and it is our responsibility to make them feel that it is their country.’ Time and again the Sangh parivar, that includes the RSS, BJP (earlier the Jan Sangh), VHP and many other saffron outfits, both overt and covert, have not cared to heed the appeal of the great Sardar. They only pay him lip service twice every year - on his birth and death anniversary- by spending crores on advertisements in his name. If they had any respect for him, they would have not erected the Statue of Liberty in his name but in the name of Gandhi. For those believing in the culture and traditions of Bharat, how can you make the Shishya taller than his Guru? But then that is the hidden agenda of RSS - BJP: diminish the stature of those stalwarts of Freedom Struggle whose vision is totally at variance with that of the Sangh.

(The author is Editor ‘The Secular Saviour’ and a former Secretary AICC)