Jairam counters EAM over Nehru-Patel row

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 13

A new book claiming

Pt Jawaharlal Nehru had excluded Sardar Patel from the first official Cabinet list has triggered a heated public debate with politicians and historians clashing with each other on the veracity of the contention.

The claim is contained in “VP Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India”, a biography of Sardar Patel’s right hand man penned by Menon’s great granddaughter Narayani Basu and released on Wednesday by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

After Jaishankar on Twitter said he learnt from the book how Nehru didn’t want Patel in the Cabinet in 1947, Congress veteran Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter today to counter the minister.

Ramesh posted historical references of the time to refute Jaishankar, who had said: “Learnt from the book that Nehru did not want Patel in the Cabinet in 1947 and omitted him from the initial Cabinet list. Clearly, a subject for much debate, noted that the author stood her ground on this revelation… Exercise of writing history for politics in the past needs honest treatment. ‘When Sardar died, a deliberate campaign was begun to efface his memory. I know this, because I have seen it, and at times, I fell victim to it myself,’ so says VP Menon.”

Jaishankar’s public remarks earlier invited rebuttals from academic-historians Srinath Raghavan and Ramachandra Guha. After Raghavan argued the claim (Nehru wanted Patel out of Cabinet) was wrong, Guha took on Jaishankar directly saying: “This is a myth that has been comprehensively demolished by Professor Srinath Raghavan. Besides promoting fake news about and false rivalries between the builders of modern India is not the job of Foreign Minister. He should leave this to the BJP’s IT cell.”

A normally reticent Foreign Minister chose to reply to Guha, saying: “Some foreign ministers do read books. May be a good habit for some professors too. In that case, strongly recommend the one I released yesterday.” With Narayani Basu deciding against joining issue on the subject, claiming it would deflect attention from Menon, Jairam Ramesh today cited letters on Twitter to prove that Patel was not only part of Nehru Cabinet, he was Nehru’s confidante in building it up. Ramesh’s first tweet said: “In light of the fake news doing the rounds that Pandit Nehru did not want Sardar Patel in his Cabinet, sharing a series of letters and documents.”

The Congress leader posted the following documents to cement his case - Nehru’s letter to Mountbatten of July 19, 1947, with Patel mentioned right on top of the new Cabinet list; and Nehru’s letter to Patel dated July 30, 1947, showing Patel as a close confidant and ally of Nehru in Cabinet formation.

In this letter Nehru wrote: “My dear Vallabhbhai, I have spoken to Ambedkar and he has agreed…Now you have to approach Syama Prasad and Rajaji and Shanmukham.”

The third document Jairam posted is Nehru’s letter to Patel dated August 1, 1947, where he describes Patel as “the strongest pillar of the Cabinet”. Lastly there’s the Nehru letter to Mountbatten dated August 4, 1947 - the first official Cabinet list which mentions Patel on top. Having made his points, Jairam’s wrote to Jaishankar today: “Problem with this very accomplished and erudite Foreign Minister is that he wishes to forget the books he read before becoming Foreign Secretary in January 2015. Do refresh your memory by reading the following series of letters.”

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