Sardar Patel : The Best PM India Never Had

by Rajnikant Puranik

MKK Nair, an IAS officer who was close to both Sardar Patel and VP Menon, states in his book ‘The Story of an Era Told Without Ill-will’: “Incessant differences of opinion between Nehru and Patel caused Nehru to treat Patel with personal animosity. If the great Nehru was not above harbouring personal hatred, he would not have done two things he did on the day Patel died. He sent two orders to the Home Ministry and they arrived at V P Menon’s desk. The first was that the Cadillac car that Patel used should be returned the very next morning to the Foreign Ministry. Patel died in Bombay. Nehru’s second memo asked officers who wished to attend his funeral to travel at their own expense. V P Menon called officers of his Ministry and, without divulging Nehru’s order, asked who all were interested to attend the funeral. About a dozen officers wanted to. He bought their air tickets at his expense. When Nehru learnt about it, he was annoyed even more.”{MKN} {Adv/157}