no light Shah
The generally accepted year of birth of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is 1875. Meaning, from 31st October we have entered his half centenary year. The Prime Minister has also mentioned its grand celebration in 'Mann Ki Baat'. BJP has been trying to put Gandhi on the top of his head, the same honorable Koran, forget Nehru and put him down, set the Sardar high. It is also completely different from its concept of 'Statue of Unity'. The thing is that it is good for a good Sardar to get directly involved with the Swaraj Sangram, if not directly. So, in recent years, Savarkar has been pushed forward by Bagebahar Leharavaniye Mathamana in history. But on the basis of a wider spectrum of acceptance, perhaps the Sardar-Sandhan is understood to be more fruitful. The trouble is that every attempt to break with history cannot at some point go unchallenged. The classic case of this in Gujarat was played only at fifteen years. Jaswant Singh, a member of the Vajpayee cabinet from 1998-2004, came out with a scholarly book in 2009 – 'Jinnah (India-Partition-Independence).' The present central leadership was then spread over the regional level and reached the national level. Jaswantsingh was not in the good book of BJP besties at that time, so the Gujarat leadership banned this book in the zeal to show its Rom Rom qualities. He invoked Section 95 of the Criminal Procedure Code and said that Jaswant Singh's presentation was objectionable, misleading and against public peace without the slightest concern as to when it was published and when it was read. In point of fact, the statement that Vallabhbhai was responsible for the partition was contrary to the idol he had intended to build. Manishi Jani and I felt we could agree if we disagreed, but such arbitrariness should not be censored. So we went to Devadi High Court, courtesy lawmaker Anand Yagnik. The High Court overturned the government ban. …But the real thing started after Arun Shourie of the Vajpayee cabinet entered the pada. He said, Bachada Jaswant is falling apart. Be the chief officer of the union. Way. Just read Seshadri's book. Look at what he has done to everyone, including Patel, regarding the partition! Of course, today's audacity to make history and sometimes Sardar's own assessment of Sardar as being higher and higher than Gandhi-Nehru among the swaraj triptych in some ways, the opposition between the two, must raise questions for anyone. In fact, it can be thought of in a slightly different way that Vallabhbhai decided to accept the partition even at the risk of being unpopular when he felt it was inevitable, why can't it be a proof that he was an iron man in one sense. Historically, the fundamental task to be done in this half-centenary year is to shed the dis-use (nakho vakhare) attitude of Sardar Parat and the mis-use (chadhavo chhapre) which is the currency of the present years. In this context, if the current power-prestige and Hindutva politics can be seen in the soul, it will become necessary. You see, in a public meeting in Lucknow on January 8, 1948 (before Gandhi was assassinated), Vallabhbhai called the Sangh a 'patriotic but misguided organisation'. Like Nehru after Gandhi's assassination, he feels the need to ban the Sangh because 'its activities are extremely dangerous'. But in the murder case, the Home Minister wrote to the Prime Minister on 27th February after the daily monitoring of the investigative system that the Sangh did not appear to be directly involved in the conspiracy, but the Hindu Mahasabha extremist group had hatched and carried out the conspiracy. (However, Nathuram Godse's brother and colleague Gopal Godse, in a book written after his release from Long Jhelum, said that in our testimony we spared Tatya Rao, i.e. Savarkar and the Sangh.) In any case, why the Sangh was responsible despite not being directly involved, Vallabhbhai in 1948 In the same year, his cabinet-mate Shyamaprasad Mukherjee wrote in no uncertain terms: The 'poisonous propaganda atmosphere' of the Sangh took its toll on Gandhiji. However, Nehru-Patel agreed with the democratic norm that union workers should not be detained without proof of direct involvement. We do not know whether the Sangh-BJP, which projects itself as a special kind of Sardarist, is willing to compromise on the three Sardar promises of 'wrong path', 'dangerous activity', and 'poisonous propaganda'. All we know is that Sardar lifted the ban in July 1949 after Sarasangh chief Golwalkar assured a written constitution, purely cultural activities, renunciation of violence and secrecy, oath of loyalty to the Indian flag and constitution, and a democratic system. With the centenary of the Sangh and the BJP's third consecutive regime, it has an important place in public life from one end or the other. Sardar's half century balanced his mahimandan, why can't he seize the opportunity of swarajmanthan for his sake?
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
