The Iron Man isn’t Congress’s private property

Just why is the Congress so enraged over the so-called appropriation by the Bharatiya Janata Party of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's legacyIJ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went out his way to point out in his speech at the inauguration of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Museum in Ahmedabad on Tuesday that he was proud to belong to a party of which Sardar Patel was a member. Earlier, a few of his Cabinet Ministers lashed out at the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi because he had ‘hijacked' the Sardar to score ‘political points’, with one Union Minister even resorting to the petty gesture of turning down an invite to attend the Ahmedabad ceremony. The Congress's outrage is misplaced. While Sardar Patel was one of the stalwarts of the party, he is rightly seen more as a national icon than a Congress leader. The Congress cannot seek to confine his legacy within its party walls. If Mr Modi invokes the Sardar's contribution to the country, he has as much right to do so as the Congress or anybody else. The Congress is on weak ground when it accuses the Gujarat Chief Minister of exploiting Sardar Patel's name. It has for decades shamelessly used Mahatma Gandhi as if the Father of the Nation belonged to the Congress and none else. It has released various Government advertisements displaying his photographs, and even named a rural employment scheme after him. If this is not ‘misappropriation' of a legacy, what isIJ But the Congress has been for years invoking Mahatma Gandhi's name selectively. The party does not want to remember the Mahatma's later disillusionment with the party.  Mahatma Gandhi had even suggested disbanding the Congress. Interestingly, while the party has expressed such ire over Mr Modi taking the centre-stage on Sardar Patel's legacy, it has done little beyond making symbolic gestures to promote the legacy of another stalwart, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Although Netaji Bose was associated with the Forward Bloc, he is not that party's property; he belongs to the country. Can the Congress list the schemes that it has named after Netaji BoseIJ

What appears to have especially enraged the Congress is Mr Modi's remark that Sardar Patel would have made a better Prime Minister than Jawaharlal Nehru. Such response is understandable for a party which is wedded to the rule of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty — though Nehru must have never wanted it that way. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate has not committed sacrilege. He has only articulated an opinion shared by millions of Indians. Those who are outraged are the ones who always lecture others on the need to respect diverse opinions. The fact is that the troublesome Kashmir legacy is Nehru's creation. He handled the matter directly in the immediate period of independence and later, and made a mess that we have to contend with, decades later. Patel had the mandate of getting the princely States to join the Indian Union, and he did it with clinical efficiency, which earned him the respect and admiration of people. Had he also been tasked with settling the Kashmir issue, perhaps things would have been different. Neither Mr Modi nor his party seeks to convert the discourse into a Nehru versus Patel issue. There is no harm in having a healthy discussion, though.