In his column "The two phases of JLN" (Line and Length, November 1), T C A Srinivasa Raghavan has aptly highlighted that the two men, Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, who never opposed Mahatma Gandhi became his favourites and climbed up the pole of power. Nehru never went against Gandhi, while Patel some times did. That made Nehru the choice for prime minister, even though Congress leaders expressed their support for Patel. Gandhi even protected Nehru despite the latter being regarded poorly by leaders such as Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The writer has rightly pointed out that Indira Gandhi "turned the party into a private army of sycophants". Mahatma Gandhi did not quite do that but did not tolerate opponents, even if somebody was democratically elected to the top post of the Congress, like Bose. So, Nehru was what Mahatma Gandhi made of him till he became prime minister.
Sukumar Mukhopadhyay New Delhi
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