15 December, 1950: Death Anniversary of Sardar Patel
Amir Chand Bombwal
I had on several occasions met with
and listened to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Occasionally also, we had exchanged
greetings. But the first opportunity to talk with him face to face came my way
at the Karachi Session of the Congress in March 1931. After the declaration of
the objective of ‘complete independence’ at Lahore, under the inspiring
leadership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1929, the first Congress Session was
held at Karachi. Also after the great ‘life and death’ struggle of 1930, it was
the first Session of this national organisation.
Our
Guiding Star: Today (15 December) is the death anniversary of this great leader
of resurgent India. Endowed with indomitable courage, farsightedness, tact and
vision, he created a strong and consolidated India with the integration of 600
and odd states. His accomplishments should inspire our youth to harness
themselves to work ceaselessly and with single- minded devotion to throw out
the Chinese hordes which have despoiled our sacred soil. His brilliant example
should be out guiding star in this national emergency. That was alone can be
vindicated the honour of our Motherland. Discipline, i.e. self- sacrifice
should be the motto of our youth.
(Reproduced from the
Frontier Mail, Dehra Dun dated 16th December, 1962)
Corruption In Administration
One
hears these days about looseness in administration and corruption and which
lead to partiality and inefficiency. If there was one enemy of corruption and
inefficiency that I came across it was Sardar Patel. I am sure he would have
exerted his utmost influence to keep the people on the straight path. But it is no good again by lamenting that
Sardar Patel left us early. When we are building up a nation and a great
Republic, we have a future before us going into centuries and we cannot expect
a single individual to remain with us even for decades, what to say of
centuries. The Nation must produce great men form amongst itself continuously
and we can only hope and pray that our future leaders will benefit from the
examples of the past lives of greats builders of our independence.
Source: Asok Mitra Papers, MSS, NMML
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