Jaishankar, Ramachandra Guha in Twitter spat over Nehru's cabinet

New Delhi, Feb 13: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar got into a Twitter spat with historian Ramachandra Guha on Thursday, on whether or not Sardar Vallabhai Patel had ever been excluded from Jawaharlal Nehru's Cabinet.

Historian Ramachandra Guha termed it a "myth" and said "besides, promoting fake news about, and false rivalries between the builders of modern India is not the job of the Foreign Minister. He should leave this to the BJP's IT Cell."

Hitting back at Guha, Jaishankar said that "Some Professors should read some books too" and he recommended him the book that he released. Replying to Guha's tweet, Jaishankar wrote, "Some Foreign Ministers do read books. Maybe a good habit for some Professors too. In that case, strongly recommend the one I released yesterday."

Jaishankar, after releasing The book 'V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India' said that he learnt from the book that "Nehru did not want Patel in the Cabinet in 1947 and omitted him from the initial Cabinet list."

The book is written by historian and analyst Narayani Basu. Basu is the great-granddaughter of V.P. Menon, a British-era civil servant, who was political reforms commissioner to multiple viceroys.