Sardar Patel : The Best PM India Never Had

Book
SARDAR PATEL
The Best PM India Never Had

Celebrating the forthcoming Birth Anniversary of Sardar Patel on 31 October 2018.

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Leaving no vital aspect uncovered, this book comprehensively covers Sardar Patel’s stellar leadership role in an engaging and gripping manner, and is interspersed with a large number of interesting episodes.

Sample Quotes from the Book

The problem of the [Princely] states is so difficult that only you [Sardar Patel] can solve it.
— Mahatma Gandhi to Sardar Patel

Sir Stafford Cripps had estimated it would take India 10 to 15 years, if not more, to liquidate the Indian Princely States and merge them with India. It was a surprise to all, and a tribute to the Sardar’s abilities, that he took, not 10 to 15 years, but less than 10 to 15 months to merge all the 548 Princely States with India, extending India’s geographical area by a whopping 40%.

...[then] it seemed to me that Jawaharlal should be the new President [of Congress in 1946—and hence Prime Minister] ...I acted according to my best judgement but the way things have shaped since then has made me to realise that this was perhaps the greatest blunder of my political life... My second mistake was that when I decided not to stand myself, I did not support Sardar Patel.
— Abul Kalam Azad, ‘India Wins Freedom’

The Sardar, as Congress’s strongman was called, was determined to stay and solve whatever problems remained, rather than running away from them. He had long viewed Nehru as a weak sister and often wondered why Gandhi thought so highly of him.
—Stanley Wolpert, ‘Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny’

Patel possessed the organising ability of Bismarck, the astute statesmanship of Chanakya, and the single-minded devotion to the cause of national unity of Abraham Lincoln.
—VV Giri, ex-President of India

You saw his [Sardar’s] face;
it grew year by year in power and determination…
— Acharya Kriplani

…Here was a man with a crystal-clear mind who could see to the core of the problem within the shortest possible time…
—Frank Anthony

You know, I never go to Nehru to seek advice or guidance. I take a decision and just present it to him as a fait accompli. Nehru’s mind is too complex to wrestle with the intricacies of a problem. Those who go to him for advice rarely get a lead—and that only serves to delay matters... Nehru does not understand economics, and is lead by the nose by ‘professors’ and ‘experts’ who pander to his whims and fancies... We should have absorbed Kashmir for good and all... I do not know where we are going. The country needs a man like Patel.”
—Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Nehru’s close friend and confidant

…Nationalist India was fortunate to have Sardar Patel to guide her destiny for a generation. But her misfortune is that there will be none to take his place when he is no more… On that issue Sardar Patel proved to be greater than the Mahatma, who had declared that India could be partitioned only over his dead body… Could Sardar Patel have had his way on the Kashmir issue, India would not be today spending fifty percent of her revenue on military budget… His [Patel] death is in fact a greater loss than that of the Mahatma… What India is today, however, is rather a creation of Patel than of his master.
—MN Roy, Communist Leader and Theoretician, in “Men I Met”

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Rajnikant Puranik
October 31, 2018
www.rkpbooks.com
rkpuranik@gmail.com