Kashmir would have been Andhra if Sardar were to be first PM: Advani

New Delhi, Oct 31 (UNI) Senior BJP leader L K Advani today said Jammu and Kashmir would have ''integrated'' with India like any other region, if the country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had been chosen as its first Prime Minister.

Speaking after releasing four books on Sardar Patel on the occasion of his 131st birth anniversary, Mr Advani, quoting the statements of former Governor General of India C Rajagopalachari and bureaucrat-turned-writer V P Menon, hailed the contribution of Mr Patel in handling the ticklish issue of integration of states into one nation in his short stint.

He said Mr Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, was on record to say the country would not have faced the problems of Jammu and Kashmir, Tibet and religious conflicts if Mr Patel were to be the Prime Minister and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Foreign Minister.

Mr V P Menon, who served Mr Patel as Secretary had written as to how J and K would have been like Andhra Pradesh (erstwhile Nizam state of Hyderabad), if Mr Nehru and Gopala Swamy Iyengar were not to take away the J K portfolio from Mr Patel.

Disagreeing with those who tended to see Mr Patel as Bismarck of India, Mr Advani said the way Sardar Patel had integrated India and awakened patriotic spirit of 560 odd rulers in a short span of three-and-a-half-year, notwithstanding the mass migration of people in the subcontinent, was indeed a herculean task.

Mr Patel had indeed dwarfed Bismarck, who unified few European territories into the German Empire, he added.

Mr Advani, who had migrated to Rajasthan from Karachi in the aftermath of partition, said he was very much aware of the feelings of the common masses in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bhopal who never wanted merger of their Kingdoms with India. But Mr Patel had used all his tact and wit to bring the rulers into the mainstream appealing to their patriotic emotions. When people like Nizams of Hyderabad or Junagarh struck a defiant posture, Mr Patel compelled an unwilling Governor General to send armed forces to merge the areas with India.

He said Indian independence was the result of sacrifices of lakhs and crores of selfless individuals and leaders but as days passed by there was systematic effort to project this as an achievement of one family erasing the due credit to the individual leaders, he said without taking the name of Nehru family.

The greatness of Mr Patel could be judged from the fact that even a bitter critic like Jaya Prakash Narain who did not spare the late Home Minister during his lifetime, had conceded openly after his death that he was 'totally wrong' in assessing Mr Patel. The country bestowed Mr Patel Bharat Ratna, 35 years after his death, Mr Advani said.

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