6 years after the 150 years celebration of the mahatma we are commemorating the 150 glorious years of Sardar Patel’s presence in body and spirit.
The enthusiasm is largely absent, the Congress party feels it has lost Patel irretrievably to the Sangh and seems indifferent about it and even the BJP has left it to the government to create an event of it. Their appropriation seems more like adopting an orphaned child.
The great leader, the greatest organizer known, the astute pragmatist politician has been reduced to a helpless victim robbed of his deserved stint as India’s first prime minister.
His long stint in the congress organization, which he built painstakingly, his staunch Gandhian creed, his effortless transformation from an agitating mass leader into a powerful conservative administrator and an articulate lawyer chaperone of the constituent assembly all set aside for creating an image of a Hindu leader who ruthlessly forced the accession of princely states.
A humble man of strong conviction, he stood firm on his beliefs without claiming credit over them. He helped restructure the bureaucracy after abolishing the colonial ICS.
He helped reorganize our states on linguistic basis, and coined‘unity in diversity’ which remains the best description of the idea of India. He mobilized the cooperative movement as he believed in collective and equitable prosperity.
Today he is projected as the symbol of a monolithic nation devoid of diversity and development sans both equity and prosperity. He acknowledged the charisma and popularity of Nehru both inside the country and outside. This is why he accepted his role as Nehru’s deputy.
As the home minister of India, when he couldn’t control the riots in Delhi, his faith in Gandhi took him to Sahadra station on the 9th of September to call on his only hope. He succeeded in bringing Gandhi to Delhi, not knowing that it would be fatal. But Delhi overcame and India survived. He knew India can only survive as a secular nation.
