Today is the birth anniversary of the iron man of India,
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It is also the death anniversary of our late Prime
Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi.
Sardar Patel was amongst the tallest leaders of our freedom
movement and newly independent India. In fact, today what we know as India is
largely due to his efforts. Anyways, I guess we do remember our school books
mentioning this particular aspect of our history. On the other hand, Smt. Gandhi
was one of the strongest PMs India ever had. So strong, that once she curbed
the very democracy that made her PM!
This post doesn’t attempt to be a history lesson. Though I hope
that today’s youth understands the difference between a leader who unified
India versus one who despite her many strong points, subverted the very idea of
Indian democracy. (That particular episode, of forced emergency is not taught
in our govt. controlled history curriculum.)
What this post attempts is to be a brief reminder of how we,
largely fed by our media are gradually relegating those who really matter(ed)
to only the history books while making gods out of those well, who don’t matter
that much. See the number of ads devoted to Mrs. Gandhi in today’s newspapers
versus the one ad remembering Sardar. All these ads have been carried out by
the ruling party Congress or the various government ministries under its
control. (And it is the taxpayers money, our money that fuels this sycophancy.)
I would have been happy if it were only sycophancy on Congress’ part. Its dynastic
cult is quite well-known to be talked about here.
What I’m more worried about is the gradual replacement of
our true history by the one sponsored by those who have ruled us for the major
part of our independent existence. Contrary to what Congress’ and its media
managers want us to believe, Sardar and what he did for India is far more
important than Indira and her way of ruling India. And this little, 370 odd
words post is my attempt to set things right, in my own insignificantly significant
way. Today is my day, our day, to first remember Sardar, while not forgetting
Indira as well. Are you with me?
