Yesterday all the news channels were showing 10, Janpath and the group of important congress leaders with the PM and Madam Sonia Gandhi deciding about splitting Andhra Pradesh into AP and Telangana. And for some reason I started thinking of Sardar Patel.
There are two stories of the “Iron” man of India – one when he was in high school and protested against the teacher who insisted on students to buy books only from his store and the other was part of my school syllabus. Vallabh Bhai Patel had to undergo a painful stomach surgery and asked the doctor to go ahead without any anaesthesia, he just read a book through the process and that’s how the name “iron” man came about. This man with the help of V P Menon created the Indian Union from 500+ princely states ….
Read more Wikipedia – Vallabh bhai Patel
Cut to yesterday – a sad group of ministers huddled around a table deciding to split yet another state and take the count to 29 … Not because it was the right thing to do, but because there is political gain to be had. And the central character is Nehru’s grand-daughter-in-law !! Nehru and Patel never saw eye to eye – one was a giant of a man, the other was of middling stature but the blue eyed poster leader of the nation. A strange twist of fate.
Can even one of the motley crowd yesterday at 10 Janpath, stand scrutiny of the tiniest kind into their records ? Sardar Patel could without hesitation. He gave up a lucrative law practice for the nation and yes, today’s generation cannot do that, but can we atleast not loot from the nation that was won through honest sweat, tears, blood and finally sacrifice by great men like Sardar Patel. The “iron” man had steel in his spine and would stand up with moral right even when he was a little boy and today the group that divides his beloved nation, are wimps that stand for nothing.
I don’t like looking back and different times call for different measures – but at all times ethics and values remain the true north. But what will spineless people know of steely right resolve ?
Sardar Patel, Why did you agree to step down as the President of the congress party in 1946 and make us subjects of the new royal family ???