The One and Only Iron Man
It is quite a well known fact in India that after the 50's there has been a conscious attempt to project the Nehrus and the Gandhis in all streams of public record as the sole messiahs of the country. And this has succeeded to a vast extent. The only leaders which people generally remember are the highly projected ones like these and those people who can be more easily identified as a part of their state's identity.
No wonder that such a great Legend Sardar Vallabhai Patel has become more of a regional icon in Gujarat and Maharashtra whereas he was in many ways the true Architect of an independent and united India. Also most indications point that Sardar himself wanted Jawaharlal Nehru to get more visibility because he had a youthful energy which could better as a marketing tool for the freedom struggle with the masses. It is quite criminal that in the later years he has become a sort of 'yet another freedom fighter' in public memory.
To just simply quote a few points from what wikipedia says on Sardar:
1) He was proposed as the first Prime Minister of India by 13 of the 16 Congress Working Committee members
2) He was sort of a Guardian light for the IAS,IPS and Indian constitution
3) He was the Architect of most of India as we see it today because he united more than 500 princely states.
4) Most of the rejected Patel ideas have resulted in great damage. For eg: UN arbitration of Kashmir
I can just go on and on. To sum up he was the greatest Prime Minister we never heard.
For just a small teaser of what kind of a tough character he was, please take a look at the following interesting scene about Hyderabad integration from the bio-pic 'Sardar'
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_mApFtTepfM&feature=related (English)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=03kqxv5ydZk&feature=related (Hindi)
No wonder that such a great Legend Sardar Vallabhai Patel has become more of a regional icon in Gujarat and Maharashtra whereas he was in many ways the true Architect of an independent and united India. Also most indications point that Sardar himself wanted Jawaharlal Nehru to get more visibility because he had a youthful energy which could better as a marketing tool for the freedom struggle with the masses. It is quite criminal that in the later years he has become a sort of 'yet another freedom fighter' in public memory.
To just simply quote a few points from what wikipedia says on Sardar:
1) He was proposed as the first Prime Minister of India by 13 of the 16 Congress Working Committee members
2) He was sort of a Guardian light for the IAS,IPS and Indian constitution
3) He was the Architect of most of India as we see it today because he united more than 500 princely states.
4) Most of the rejected Patel ideas have resulted in great damage. For eg: UN arbitration of Kashmir
I can just go on and on. To sum up he was the greatest Prime Minister we never heard.
For just a small teaser of what kind of a tough character he was, please take a look at the following interesting scene about Hyderabad integration from the bio-pic 'Sardar'
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_mApFtTepfM&feature=related (English)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=03kqxv5ydZk&feature=related (Hindi)
posted by Badri at 1:20 PM
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