BJP TODAY

November 16--30, 2003 - Vol. 12, No. 22

Bharat Ratna comes home to rest in Iron Man's birthplace

India's iron man, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the son of the soil who sallied forth from this sleepy hamlet to become a frontline warrior of the country's freedom struggle returned to his native dust as a Bharat Ratna over half a century after his death on Friday.

The Sardar Patel Trust, created to perpetuate the memory of late Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and late Veer Vithalbhai Patel was honoured on Friday morning with the coming home of the Bharat Ratna to this birthplace of the legendary leader. At a high profile function on his birth anniversary on Friday, India's Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani handed over the precious Bharat Ratna to Ashok Patel, President, Sardar Patel Trust in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel and Bipinbhai Patel, grandson of the late Sardar Patel.

The Bharat Ratna was awarded posthumously to the late Sardar Patel in 1991 and was till now in the possession of his grandson Bipinbhai Patel.

Additionally, a few belongings of the late Sardar Patel including a charka, shawl and tea set presented to him by Lord Mountbatten was also handed over to the trust at the hands of Chief Minister Modi.

A visibly moved Deputy Prime Minister Advani who had just heard with rapt attention, a replay of the late Sardar's speech at the first anniversary of free India was in a reflective mood as he spoke of the trauma of partition and paid rich tributes to the Sardar who had guided the country through very turbulent times even as he welded India into a proud nation. "But for the acumen, foresight and skill of this great leader India would not have been partitioned into two but into hundreds of parts.

The British while departing had not merely created Pakistan but handed over paramountcy to more than 500 princely states. It was Sardar who welded them into one", he added.

The Deputy Prime Minister who had himself been displaced during partition recreated with feeling the upheaval that partition had caused.

"Partition was the biggest disaster of all times. There was an unprecedented migration of people. Lakhs were massacred and there was total chaos. It was Sardar who managed this disaster and restored order," he added.

Advani expressed sadness that only one family had chosen to appropriate the credit for the entire freedom struggle though lakhs of people made great sacrifices for it and the Sardar had not received the credit that was due to him from the government of the time.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who also spoke on the occasion, said that it was ironic that late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was a toddler when Sardar was stringing India together had been given the Bharat Ratna honour before the iron man of India got it posthumously in 1991. "To my mind even Gandhi would have been incomplete without Sardar," he added.

Courtesy: The Pioneer