Hinting that leaders of the freedom movement were giants who worked for a great cause, he said, "We have subservience, we have cronyism, not loyalty. Not the kind that with all their differences, would not let Nehru abandon Gandhi, nor Patel leave Nehru and made Nehru keep his door open to Jayaprakash Narayan," said Gandhi.
"Many things our forebears valued and fostered are dead or dying without as much as chance to say their last words. First among them is trust," he further observed.
The former governor of West Bengal was delivering the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Memorial Lecture 2013 "Last Words As Those at Death's Door Speak" here.
His remarks came at a time of growing slugfest between the BJP and the Congress with Opposition PM candidate Narendra Modi stating that the fate of the country would have been different had Patel been the first prime minister.
"Every Indian still regrets that he (Patel) did not become the first prime minister. Had he been the first prime minister, the country's destiny would have been different," Modi had said.