Can a Union Minister Use ‘Rumours’ to Defame Jawaharlal Nehru?

Here is a True or False question.

Nehru did not want Sardar Patel in his Cabinet! True or False?

The answer is False. And here is the clearest proof of that – an excerpt of this letter written by Nehru to Sardar Patel on the 1st of August 1947.

“Dear Vallabhbhai, as a formality I invite you to join the new Cabinet. Writing this is superfluous because you are the strongest pillar of the Cabinet.”

And for further confirmation here is Sardar Patel’s reply, dated 3rd August, 1947 – let’s read it in detail as it says a lot – after ‘Thanks’, Patel says.

“....our attachment, affection, comradeship of 30 years needs no formalities.”

That was the true nature of Nehru and Patel’s relationship – huge mutual respect and affection, not enmity.

But, wait. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar stirred controversy with a tweet, where he said, “Learnt from a book that Nehru did not want Patel in the Cabinet in 1947 and omitted him from the initial Cabinet list.”

But, where's the evidence and the proof to back this up?

And yet here we are, swallowing conjecture and rumours, and allowing two national icons to be reduced to bickering daily soap-opera characters.

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