Revealed: Nehru wanted to scuttle Sardar’s Hyderabad plan

[ajtr]

Revealed: Nehru wanted to scuttle Sardar’s Hyderabad plan

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, whose 137th birth anniversary is on October 31, was insulted, humiliated and disgraced by the then Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, during a Cabinet meeting. “You are a complete communalist and I’ll never be a party to your suggestions and proposals,” Nehru shouted at Patel during a crucial Cabinet meeting to discuss the liberation of Hyderabad by the Army from the tyranny of the Razakkars, the then Nizam’s private army.

“A shocked Sardar Patel collected his papers from the table and slowly walked out of the Cabinet room. That was the last time Patel attended a Cabinet meeting. He also stopped speaking to Nehru since then,” writes MKK Nair, a 1947 batch IAS officer, in his memoirs “With No Ill Feeling to Anybody”. Nair had close ties with both Sardar and VP Menon, his Man Friday.
Though Nair has not written the exact date of the above mentioned Cabinet meeting, it could have happened during the weeks prior to the liberation of Hyderabad by the Indian Army. Operation Polo, the mission to liberate Hyderabad from the Nizam, began on September 13, 1948 and culminated on September 18. While Sardar Patel wanted direct military action to liberate Hyderabad from the rape and mayhem perpetrated by the 2,00,000 Razakars, Nehru preferred the United Nations route.

Nair writes that Nehru’s personal hatred for Sardar Patel came out in the open on December 15, 1950, the day the Sardar breathed his last in Bombay (now Mumbai). “Immediately after he got the news about Sardar Patel’s death, Nehru sent two notes to the Ministry of States. The notes reached VP Menon, the then Secretary to the Ministry. In one of the notes, Nehru had asked Menon to send the official Cadillac car used by Sardar Patel to the former’s office. The second note was shocking. Nehru wanted government secretaries desirous of attending Sardar Patel’s last rites to do so at their own personal expenses.

“But Menon convened a meeting of all secretaries and asked them to furnish the names of those who want to attend the last rites of Patel. He did not mention anything about the note sent by Nehru. Menon paid the entire cost of the air tickets for those secretaries who expressed their wish to attend Sardar’s last journey. This further infuriated Nehru,” Nair has written about his memoirs in the corridors of power in New Delhi.

Nair’s friendship with Patel began during the former’s posting in Hyderabad as a civilian officer of the Army. “I was a bachelor and my guest house was a rendezvous of all those in the inner circle of the then Nizam of Hyderabad. Every night they arrived with bundles of currency notes. We gambled and played flash and the stakes were high. During the game I served them the finest Scotch. After a couple of drinks, the princes and the junior Nawabs would open their minds and reveal the secret action plans being drawn out in the Nizam’s palace. Once intoxicated, they would tell me about the plans to merge Hyderabad with Pakistan after independence. This was information that no one outside the Nawab’s close family members and the British secret service were privy to. But I ensured that this information reached directly to Sardar Patel and thus grew our relation,” writes Nair.
The relation between Nair and Sardar Patel was such that the former’s director general in the ministry told him once: “Sardar Patel keeps an open house for you.” Nair, who worked in various ministries during his three-decade long civil service career, writes that the formation of North East Frontier Service under the Ministry of External Affairs by Nehru and the removal of the affairs of the Jammu & Kashmir from the Ministry of Home Affairs are the major reasons behind the turmoil in both the regions.

“This was done by Nehru to curtail the wings of Sardar Patel,” Nair has written. Though Sardar Patel was known as a no-nonsense man devoid of any sense of humour, Nair has written about lighter moments featuring him. The one centres around VP Menon with whom Patel had a special relation. Menon had to face the ire of Nesamani Nadar, a Congress MP from Kanyakumari, during his visit to Thiruvananthapuram in connection with the reorganisation of States. Nadar barged into Menon’s suit in the State Gust House and shouted at him for not obeying his diktats. Menon, who was enjoying his quota of sun-downer, asked Nadar to get out of his room. A furious Nadar sent a six-page letter to Sardar Patel trading all kinds of charges against Menon. “He was fully drunk when I went to meet him in the evening and he abused me using the filthiest of languages,” complained Nadar in his letter.

Sardar Patel, who read the letter in full asked his secretary V Shankar, an ICS officer: “Shankar, does VP take drinks?” Shankar, who was embarrassed by the question, had to spill the beans. “Sir, Menon takes a couple of drinks in the evening,” he said. Sardar was curious to know what was Menon’s favorite drink. Shankar replied that Menon preferred only Scotch. “Shankar, you instruct all government secretaries to take Scotch in the evening,” Sardar told Shankar. Nair writes that this anecdote was a rave in the Delhi evenings for a number of years!

Balraj Krishna (92), who authored Sardar’s biography, told The Pioneer that Nehru was opposed to Babu Rajendra Prasad, the then President, travelling to Bombay to pay his last respects to Patel. “But Prasad insisted and made it to Bombay,” said Krishna. MV Kamath, senior journalist, said though Nehru too attended the funeral of Patel, it was C Rajagopalachari, who delivered the funeral oration.

Prof MGS Narayanan, former chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, said there was no reason to disbelieve what Nair has written. “But his memoirs did not get the due recognition it deserved. It is a historical chronicle of pre-and post independent India,” he said.

 

[Sashan]

- like the scotch diplomacy by Sardar.

 

[Kaniska]

@ajtr...Of course...Nehru never likes any nationalist people of my nation....Sardar Patel was a true patriot...Of course any one from Congress never has a good feeling towards nationalistic and patriot people....

 

[punit]

nehru and his clan r the biggest mofos our country ever produced. PDF style Sawa lakh lanat on him.

 

[KS]

UN route and Nehru - enough said.

It's not as if this is the only blunder,idiocacy he exhibited. So lets not get there. Actually one thing worth noting is the usage of the word "communalist" by Nehru. That trait has come down through the ages where its a fashion to label each and every nationalist as a "communalist".

Thank God we had the luck to have a man like Sardar Patel at that most crucial time when India needed a firm hand to help it get up in its infancy.

 

[Sashan]

nehru and his clan r the biggest mofos our country ever produced. PDF style Sawa lakh lanat on him.

Actually I will leave out Motilal from Nehru clan who is the actual visionary about secularism. He is the one who prepared what is called Nehru Report in 1928 - a memorundum highlighting the constitution for the new dominion and whose features were truly secular in nature and his son abandoned it in favor of a constitution which had different laws for different religions - he took it from the Government of India Act's constitution prepared in 1935, whose very basis was the Simon report prepared in 1928 for the same purpose as what Motital 's Nehru report was prepared.

And contrary to belief Nehru was not the first to start the Nehru clan. It was Motilal who was the congress president in 1928 and Nehru took over in 1929 as congress president with support from Gandhi(Nehru was under Gandhi's mentorship from 1920-28) - So he had everything served to him in a platter.

And somewhere Nehru picked up socialism and along with Azad and Subhash was stating socialism as a future Indian economic policy in 1930s as the solution for the poverty in India. The other side were the conservatives like Patel and Rajaji and so was Nehru's hate for these conservatives as they opposed him.

As a side note, even Bose would have been a worse choice for India due to his support for socialism.

 

[third eye]

Whatever be said or written, Patel had his way and also the last laugh by doing what he did at Junagadh , J&K and Hyderabad.

His actions were vindicated by subsequent events.

Nehru was a victim of his sense of self importance. He never recovered from the shock of 62.

He too did well for India in patches but is an example of the fallout allowing a man to stay at the helm for too long.

he then gets surrounded by yes men and starts believing that what he says or does is always right because everyone around him agrees all the time.

 

[ajtr]

Actually I will leave out Motilal from Nehru clan who is the actual visionary about secularism. He is the one who prepared what is called Nehru Report in 1928 - a memorundum highlighting the constitution for the new dominion and whose features were truly secular in nature and his son abandoned it in favor of a constitution which had different laws for different religions - he took it from the Government of India Act's constitution prepared in 1935, whose very basis was the Simon report prepared in 1928 for the same purpose as what Motital 's Nehru report was prepared.

And contrary to belief Nehru was not the first to start the Nehru clan. It was Motilal who was the congress president in 1928 and Nehru took over in 1929 as congress president with support from Gandhi(Nehru was under Gandhi's mentorship from 1920-28) - So he had everything served to him in a platter.

And somewhere Nehru picked up socialism and along with Azad and Subhash was stating socialism as a future Indian economic policy in 1930s as the solution for the poverty in India. The other side were the conservatives like Patel and Rajaji and so was Nehru's hate for these conservatives as they opposed him.

As a side note, even Bose would have been a worse choice for India due to his support for socialism.

Actually what i make of nehru as an egoist person having very high opinion about himself .no wonder he could not bear the spanking to his ego from mao and his misries ended up with his death.

 

[KS]

Whatever be said or written, Patel had his way and also the last laugh by doing what he did at Junagadh , J&K and Hyderabad.

His actions were vindicated by subsequent events.

Nehru was a victim of his sense of self importance. He never recovered from the shock of 62.

He too did well for India in patches but is an example of the fallout allowing a man to stay at the helm for too long.

he then gets surrounded by yes men and starts believing that what he says or does is always right because everyone around him agrees all the time.

Nehru was text book example of pedigree rather than true substance getting you all the good things in life.

 

[Sashan]

Actually what i make of nehru as an egoist person having very high opinion about himself .no wonder he could not bear the spanking to his ego from mao and his misries ended up with his death.

Nehru got everything handed to him in a plater by way of his association with Gandhi and by way of Motilal's popularity within Congress. He opposed Patel tooth and nail since 1930s and it showed later. If only Gandhi had allowed the democracy within Congress, post independence Patel would have the PM.

 

[harpoon]

One more blunder added to Nehru's legacy.Next whether he truly loved children or his birthday being celebrated as Children's day is anothersham.

 

[jandk]

I hate this ****** Nehru. Was a huge idiot. Responsible for decades of economic stagnation, territory loses, and this nehru-gandhi dynasty.

 

[Srinivas]

I hate this ****** Nehru. Was a huge idiot. Responsible for decades of economic stagnation, territory loses, and this nehru-gandhi dynasty.

Mao also did the same with China and USSR also collapsed because of same type of policies.

 

[jandk]

Mao also did the same with China and USSR also collapsed because of same type of policies.

nehru was an intellectual. not prime minister material

 

[Tshering22]

nehru was an intellectual. not prime minister material

That is very polite of you. Nehru was a third-rate colonial excretion that the imperial British left here to ensure bogging down of India even after they left.

Calling such a man an intellectual would be an insult to the name. But if we can call Roy an intellectual, then I guess the word means a polite means of saying "f ilthy traitor".

@ajtr...Of course...Nehru never likes any nationalist people of my nation....Sardar Patel was a true patriot...Of course any one from Congress never has a good feeling towards nationalistic and patriot people....

Usually such people are known as secularists today.

UN route and Nehru - enough said.

It's not as if this is the only blunder,idiocacy he exhibited. So lets not get there. Actually one thing worth noting is the usage of the word "communalist" by Nehru. That trait has come down through the ages where its a fashion to label each and every nationalist as a "communalist".

Thank God we had the luck to have a man like Sardar Patel at that most crucial time when India needed a firm hand to help it get up in its infancy.

I would have loved to be a part of India with Sardar Patel as the PM.

The man had all the characteristics of a leader.

But considering that Gandhi chose Nehru over Patel, I never expected anything from a gutless charlatan like the "father" of nation.