October 31 this year marked the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the duly and rightly acknowledged Iron Man of India. The Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre duly celebrated the day, marking it as the ‘Rashtriya Ekta Diwas’ (National Integration Day).
Deservingly so, because Sardar Patel was the leader who was the main force to unify the states and small principalities into one union after the independence of the country.
Patel’s role in liberating Hyderabad from its Nawab, who was otherwise decided and determined to join Pakistan, was exemplary. So was he instrumental in making Junagadh accede to India, despite its Muslim ruler having decided to join Pakistan.
The nation obviously can never forget or ignore the contribution of Sardar Patel as a unifying leader of the country who integrated disparate ‘states’ and ‘statelets’ into the modern united India. He is rightly described as the Iron Man of India.
Unfortunately for the nation, he died quite soon. Had Sardar Patel lived a little longer, the country might well have done much better than it did. Unlike the contemporary propaganda that he was a rival to Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and they did not get along well, they were great colleagues and companions and complemented each other in every respect. While Nehru was a sort of romantic idealist, Patel was a ruthless pragmatist.
On the same day, October 31, falls the death anniversary of the former Prime Minister Ms Indira Gandhi, whose contribution in preserving, safeguarding and strengthening the unity and integrity of India, that was primarily carved out by Sardar Patel, is no less. Rather, in comparison, Ms Gandhi stands taller, for the obvious reason that she paid with her life just for defending and protecting the unity and integrity of the country. She literally gave every drop of her blood for protecting the unity and integrity of the country.
Not surprisingly or unexpectedly, the Government of India completely forgot, rather ignored, her martyrdom while it celebrated Sardar Patel’s 150th birth anniversary with great pomp and show. The celebrations were led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally.
There was not a single mention of Ms Gandhi on any of the social media handles of the government to remember her great sacrifice for the country, and that too on a day that was being celebrated as the ‘National Integration Day’. Imagining national integration without Ms Gandhi’s contribution is not just odd, but in bad taste.
No doubt Ms Gandhi belonged to the Congress and she headed the Congress governments. Interestingly, she was not as much at odds with the BJP or its earlier Jan Sangh avatar and the RSS as Sardar Patel had been. Sardar Patel had taken a firm stand against the RSS in the aftermath of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and also banned the organisation. This was despite the fact that there was no evidence of the RSS’ involvement in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
While Sardar Patel is the Iron Man of India, Ms Gandhi undoubtedly is the Iron Lady of India. She faced the toughest challenges as the Prime Minister and always emerged successful, although in the end, she had to pay with her own life. That is probably the mark of a leader who never hesitates to take risks in the interest of the country, even putting her own life at peril, which Ms Gandhi actually did.
Not only was she brave and bold, she possessed the courage of conviction. That she was so firm and convinced in her belief in secularism is proved by the fatal risk she took that cost her own life. She had herself wished, just a few days before her assassination, that every drop of her blood should be spent for safeguarding the unity and integrity of the nation. And she did it literally.
Creating a new nation, Bangladesh, is a unique example in the modern world. She not only created history, she redesigned world geography. The creation of Bangladesh was quite unimaginable, yet she made that possible with sheer grit and determination.
She did it 54 years ago, when India fitted perfectly into the definition of a third-world country. It was certainly not like today’s India, which has progressed much since then and is militarily more powerful and economically more self-reliant.
She directly confronted the US. The arrival of the Seventh Fleet in the Bay of Bengal was aimed to scare and threaten her away. She just didn’t. She cleaved Pakistan into two halves. That was actually the first and the greatest surgical strike India did on Pakistan.
Identifying and relating national integrity with Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary is indeed a befitting tribute to the contribution of the Iron Man towards the unity and integrity of the country.
However, it would have been better and more gracious had Ms Indira Gandhi’s martyrdom day also been observed as the National Integration Day. Both fell on the same day.
Any “nationalist” in India cannot identify himself or herself as such without acknowledging the sacrifice of Ms Gandhi. Whosoever does that behaves like a partisan politician and not a true patriot. Martyrs belong to the whole nation, not a particular party.
What Sardar Patel created, Indira Gandhi defended and protected with her blood — literally. Lest we forget.
By Vimal Sumbly
Also Read: Ban on RSS; Did Khare bite more than he can chew?
Follow us
