Sardar Patel : The Best PM India Never Had

by Rajnikant Puranik

Anyone who takes life too seriously must prepare himself for a miserable existence.

While practising in Ahmedabad, Patel donned European-style clothes.

Like his three brothers who too had lost their wives at an early age, Vallabhbhai decided not to remarry.

What worries me is that all the people in charge of the jail here are Indians! It is through us Indians that they work this inhuman system

Gandhi faced a hostile climate at the Karachi Congress on account of his failure to save Shahid Bhagat Singh and associates.

The Muslim League gave a poor showing. It secured less than 5% of the Muslim votes.

he went on a fast on 10 February 1943. The Raj did not bother. It was indeed hoping Gandhi would succumb to his fast. Reportedly, it was even ready for his cremation on the grounds of the Aga Khan Palace. The fast ended on 3 March 1943.

The back of the struggle was broken by the Raj in less than two months: by end of September 1942 it had been largely controlled.

Stated Churchill’s friend Page Croft: “The failure of Gandhi to rouse India against the King-Emperor is one of the happiest events of the war.”{PF/178}

The British commanding officer of the HMIS Talwar used to call his Indian men ‘black niggers’ and ‘coolie bastards’.

Pakistan had been claiming the whole of Assam, Bengal and Punjab; India retained the whole of Assam (but for one district), while forcing partition of Bengal and Punjab.

in less than a year, it may be argued that these two men achieved a larger India, more closely integrated, than had 90 years of British raj, 180 years of the Mughal Empire, or 130 years of Asoka

Mountbatten promptly recognised Junagadh as Pakistani territory, and advised so to the King in his report.

Nawab to wait while she fetched her. The moment she left the airfield, the Nawab loaded in two more dogs and took off without his wife...”{Mos/210-1}

However, the Police, the Army, and the Civil Services were almost completely the preserve of the Muslims.

General Cariappa was then given charge of the Indian Army.”{MKN}

Had Gandhi been alive, perhaps Nehru-Gandhi combine would not have allowed the action that Sardar took—Gandhi being a pacifist.

For example he dismissed his Prime Minister Ram Chandra Kak, a Kashmiri Pandit, who had been advising him on aligning with Pakistan!

The Kennedy administration was ready to help India out with nuclear deterrence. But, Nehru rejected the offer.

Nehru was also in favour of Persian-Arabic script in which Urdu is written, rather than Devanagari script in which Hindi and Sanskrit are written.

“You can compromise with anyone. How does that matter to you? After all a bania has no pride in his moustache and let's it hang down!”{BK/163}