No matter what the Congress leader says, the nation knows that Sardar Patel cannot be pocketed as a leader of one political party and that he was a national leader of immense greatness and belonged to the nation -- far beyond political claims. The same is the case with all national leaders of all times, Sardar Patel or anybody.

 

New Delhi, October 31 (PTI): Describing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as a stalwart of the Congress who was strongly opposed to the RSS, party leader Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, on Thursday, said, she felt happy seeing the BJP’s attempts to “adopt” the “Iron Man of India” as it showed that the saffron party did not have a great freedom fighter of its own.

 

Her attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came on a day the Government organised a series of events across the country to mark the birth anniversary of Patel, the first Home Minister of India. “Sardar Patel was a stalwart of the Congress who was devoted to the ideology of the party,” Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

 

He was a close companion of Jawaharlal Nehru .. and was strongly opposed to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the BJP, the Congress General Secretary said. “Today, seeing the BJP trying to adopt him and pay tributes to him gives a lot of happiness, because two things are clear ...: 1, it has no great freedom fighter of its own. Almost all of them were associated with the Congress; 2, Even enemies have to bow before great men like Sardar Patel one day,” she added.

THIS is a statement of monumental immaturity which Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra is fully and uniquely capable of. Each of the words in her tweet shows that she has a petty mindset, which her party has given her, that refuses to recognise that personages like Sardar Patel belong to the whole nation and not to any one political outfit. That was the reason why the political upstart mustered such a nonsensical audacity to say that the BJP did not have a great patriot “of its own”! Actually, nothing more than such a statement can be expected from her. For, that is the way she has been groomed to be.

 

The tweet has given rise to many questions that must be asked of Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra and also of the Congress party:

 

1. If Sardar Patel was such a stalwart of the Congress party as she has claimed, then why was it that the party forgot to perpetuate his memory, and the country had to wait for the Narendra Modi Government to restore the great man’s name at the top of the list of all-time greats?

 

2. If Sardar Patel was such a close companion of Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, as Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra has claimed (which was right, too), then why did Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru keep Sardar Patel in dark and made a sly announcement about the imposition of Special Status on Kashmir straight from the All India Radio Studio?

 

3. Has Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra forgotten the historical truth that it was Sardar Patel who lived up to his friendship with Pandit Nehru? That was the reason why Sardar Patel removed himself from contention when Mahatma Gandhi asked him to step aside and allow Pandit Nehru to be India’s first Prime Minister, but the vice versa did not happen. Has the Congress General Secretary forgotten this part of history -- by omission or by commission?

 

4. If Sardar Patel were such a stalwart Congressman (as per Mrs. Gandhi-Vadra’s statement), then why was he sidelined by the then powers that be as regards Kashmir? Why was his expertise (that he showed in great abundance while handling the rest of Princely States) in managing complicated political situations ignored by the Government of her own party way back in 1947?

 

There could be endless lists of issues to confront Mrs. Gandhi-Vadra with. But let us keep the argument restricted to her statement -- ‘the BJP does not have a great patriot of its own ...’!!! Unfortunately, the lady does not have the slightest comprehension of the process of history and how it throws up great personalities time to time.

 

The BJP Government certainly has revived the memories of the great contribution Sardar Patel made to the national cause. The Statue of Unity, the tallest in the world, will now keep reminding succeeding generations of Indians how one man made possible the unification of 543 Princely States into Indian Union after the lapse of the British Paramountcy, and how he laid the foundation of India’s national security policy -- which, again, the Narendra Modi Government is now trying to adopt and adapt in current conditions.

 

But Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra does not understand all this. Her party also does not permit her to try to expand her comprehension on any issue of such an importance. That is why she wishes to talk the strange language of ‘a great patriot of its own ...’ about the BJP.

 

There is also one more question which we must ask at this stage. Did the Modi Government do anything wrong in launching Swacchha Bharat campaign in the footprint of Mahatma Gandhi? Has it not served a long-neglected cause? If Mrs. Gandhi-Vadra is to blame the BJP for taking political advantage of Mahatma Gandhi, then we must ask her: Was not cleanliness a national need and imperative?

 

No matter what the Congress leader says, the nation knows that Sardar Patel cannot be pocketed as a leader of one political party and that he was a national leader of immense greatness and belonged to the nation -- far beyond political claims. The same is the case with all national leaders of all times, Sardar Patel or anybody.

 

But then, it would be foolhardy to expect Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra to understand how Destiny operates through history’s nuances. She is too blinded by political vested interests, and is upset that the BJP is picking up ‘mileage’ out of the “stalwart Congressman” Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. That is Mrs. Gandhi-Vadra’s limitation, circumscribed by a terrible political myopia.