BJP veteran lK Advani on Tuesday dished out more facts to back his earlier blog posts, wherein he wrote about differences between Jawahalal Nehru and Sardar Patel over police action against defiant rulers of Hyderabad after Independence.
In a fresh post on his blog on Tuesday, Advani quoted from a book by KM Munshi, India’s Agent General in Hyderabad before the police action, to provide ‘clinching evidences’ about the differences between the two leaders. “A major controversy has erupted since then more particularly after I used The Pioneer news story in one of my blogs. The news story was no doubt based on a Malayalam book written by an IAS officer Shri M K K Nayar who passed away in 1987,” Advani wrote in his blog on Tuesday.
Quoting from Munshi’s book, Pilgrimage to Freedom, Advani wrote that a day before the army was scheduled to march into Hyderabad, Nehru called a special meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, excluding the three Chiefs of Staff. The meeting, held in the Prime Minister’s room, was attended by Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, the then Defence and Finance Ministers, the State Secretary VP Menon and the Defence Secretary HM Patel.
“The discussion had scarcely begun when Jawaharlal Nehru flew into a rage and upbraided Sardar for his action and attitude towards Hyderabad. He also directed his wrath against VP Menon. He concluded his outburst with the remark that in future he would himself attend to all matters relating to Hyderabad. The vehemence of his attack, as well as its timing, shocked everyone present. Throughout the outburst Sardar sat still without uttering a word. He then rose and left the meeting accompanied by VP Menon. The meeting dispersed without transacting any business,” Advani wrote quoting from Munshi’s book.
Munshi wrote that Menon registered his protest by letting Nehru know that if that was how he felt about things there was no point in his (Menon’s) continuing in the States Ministry. “By then the Prime Minister felt that he had overshot the mark and apologised to Menon. He never carried out his threat to take the Hyderabad portfolio out of Sardar’s hands, and the latter adhered to his schedule regarding the police action. There was no further discussion between the two on the subject of Hyderabad,” Advani wrote, quoting excerpts from the book.