Forgotten Hero!

What marks the date of October 31???

Nope, it’s not my birthday, .

If the reader may recall that day’s newspaper, s/he would pop out of the chair and scream, “Well! It was the Death Anniversary of Indira Gandhi!”

You all must have noticed the big advertisements carried in the paper, sponsored by various ministries, the Congress Party and the Delhi Government. All of these showed a big portrait of the assassinated Prime Minister, with some synthesised words in her honour.

“The Zenith of Sycophancy”

It’s good that the government does its best to remember former dignitaries, especially, when they are of the ruling party.

So far, so good.

October 31 is also special, not merely by the fact that Indira Gandhi was gunned down by her bodyguards and that anti-Sikh riots broke out later in the night; but because, India was fortunate enough that a man was born, on this day, who changed the very shape of the country.

This man, is Sardar Vallabhbhai Jhaveribhai Patel. The “Iron Man” of India.

He is one such man, who I believe has the greatest legacy in the country.

• The Union and the States
• The Constitution
• The Taste of India – Amul

If Jawaharlal Nehru is the first PM, then doubtlessly Sardar is the King-Maker, the Chanakya.

Mahatma Gandhi was a man of ideals, and he was just on the far extreme to tread on the path of morals and ethics. So much so, he asked Patel to withdraw his name for the Prime Minister-ship, because Nehru wanted to be it, and also, noone alleges a kind of nepotistic parochialism, being both Gandhi and Patel hailing from Kathiawad, Gujarat.

Then the organisation of the 560 Princely states, drafting of the Constitution, where Patel’s credited to its Federal tilt.

Nehru, another idealist, went to the UN, against the wish of Patel, and was handed over a LOC in Kashmir. He didn’t even want to bring in Hyderabad through forceful methods, and it was only when he was away in Europe, Patel being the acting PM liberated the second biggest Princely state from the NIzam.

Patel was sceptical of China, Nehru admired it till the end, until getting dusted to ground.

And, Patel, in order to create a balance of Power, sworned in Rajendra Prasad as the President of the Republic, not the incumbent, friend of Nehru, C. Rajagopalchari, “Rajaji”.

I won’t go into much detail about his life here, you may click the following link for more-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardar_Vallabhbhai_Patel

The point I want to make here, is, since Nehru and Patel were like a sort of rivals, who differed on a number of issues, former being the Idealist, latter showing his Pragmatism; the Government of India outwardly manifest its bias between the two.

A huge majority of the population won’t be knowing the birthday of Sardar Patel, whereas in the case of Nehru, even the kindergarten kid celebrates “Children’s day”!

The various advertisements we see on October 31 are essentially sycophantic in nature. The newspapers didn’t mention anything of Patel, at all.

It is time to dig deep in history and acknowledge the forgotten heroes.

Patel, being the Zeus of them all.