B.RAMAN
I have
been in receipt of the following comments regarding what I had stated about the
role of Jawaharlal Nehru in the non-nomination of Rajaji as the Congress Party’s
candidate to be the first President of India.
COMMENT
NO.1
Your
account of Rajaji not making it to the President's post doesn't conform to what
really happened.
Nehru
actually wanted Rajaji as President and worked hard in his favour. But a
section of the Congress, dominated by North Indian hardliners, strongly
resisted the idea touting the ground that Rajaji had worked against the
Congress during 1942-47, by actually canvassing for partition and by keeping
out of the Quit India movement.
Ultimately Nehru succumbed to the pressure to make Rajendra Prasad the
President,. However, to show his solidarity with Rajaji and where his true
feelings lay, Nehru accompanied Rajaji to the airport at the time he left for
Chennai and saw him off after a warm embrace.
CS (C.Subramanian) also says in his
HAND OF DESTINY that Nehru backed Rajaji but had to yield to critics of
Rajaji's past actions.
COMMENT
NO 3
Thank
you very much for this article which is excellent, as usual, and is an appeal
for sanity. Whether Sonia Gandhi and her sycophants as well as Mulayam Yadav
would heed it during the very short time at their disposal remains to be seen.
There is one point, however, from which I must dissent.
Whatever
the feeling at that time in "Madras"
in 1950, the fact is that Nehru tried hard and persistently to get
Rajaji elected as India's first
president. But the support for Rajendra Prasad within the Congress party was
much too strong. Moreover, Rajen Babu had full support of Vallabhbhai Patel. At
one stage, under much persuation by Nehru, Prasad thought of withdrawing from
the race but Patel taunted him: "What can the baraat do when the dulha
(groom) runs away?"
COMMENT
NO 3
A
reader has also drawn my attention to an article on this subject carried by “The
New York Times” on June 14,2012, available at
http://india.blogs.nytimes.
http://india.blogs.nytimes.
In view
of the account from these three excellent sources, my statement that Nehru did
not support the candidature of Rajaji for being the first President of India is
incorrect. I stand corrected.
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