The selection of India’s first president was preceded by a fierce political contest between Nehru and Patel
(First published on Scroll)
26 January 1950 heralded in many changes for India, as its newly
minted constitution was pressed into service.
One of those changes was that the country ceased to be a constitutional
monarchy, with the British King as head of state, and became a republic. This
meant that the representative of the British Crown, the governor-general would
have to give way to a president. On 26 January 1950, therefore, the last
governor-general of India, C Rajagopalachari swore in Rajendra Prasad as President
of the Republic of India.
This passing of the baton, while smooth in outward appearance,
was actually preceded by a fierce political tug of war, as Prime Minster
Jawaharlal Nehru and Home Mister Vallabhbhai Patel jostled for influence within
the Government.
Two candidates:
Rajaji and Prasad
By mid-1949, the constitution-making process was drawing to
a close and the need to choose a president, to act as head of the new republican
state, was looming. For this post, Nehru preferred Rajagopalachari, a
scholar-politician from Madras. Rajaji, as he was fondly called, was already
governor-general at the time and appointing him president would involve nothing
more than a change of title.
Patel, though, had other ideas, and supported Bihar
Congressman, Rajendra Prasad instead. To some extent, this split was driven by
ideology. Rajaji and Nehru agreed with each other on the type of secularism
India should follow, an idea Patel didn’t quite buy into: the Sardar would once
call
Rajaji “half a Muslim” and Nehru, “the Congress’ only nationalist Muslim” (the
latter was also a backhanded dig at Abul Kalam Azad). Rajaji had also, back in
the day, opposed and eventually dissociated himself from the Quit India Movement,
a fact that rankled with many Congressmen.
Patel’s choice, Rajendra Prasad, was like him a social
conservative. As president, Prasad would bitterly oppose Nehru’s Hindu Code
Bills which gave women greater rights. He would also help rebuild the Somnath
Temple, after the Sardar’s death. His most interesting clash with Nehru though
was over the very date of Republic Day: Prasad wanted it moved because
he thought the day to be astrologically inauspicious.
Mostly, however, this clash was nothing but your
garden-variety political turf war and was driven by Patel’s desire to put a
check on Nehru's power. A year later, Patel would even manage to push his own
candidate as Congress President, tartly remarking
that, "At the time of Rajen babu's election he [Nehru] got a slap in the
face. This is the second."
Patel outmanoeuvres
Nehru
Decision made, Patel privately communicated his support to
Prasad. He did not, however, publicly reveal his hand yet, preferring to bide
his time.
Rash and impetuous, with characteristic disdain for the
nitty-gritties, Nehru preferred to take a more direct and ultimately imprudent approach.
With murmurs swirling around in the Congress of Prasad’s candidature, on 10
September 1949, Nehru wrote directly to him expressing his opinion that “Rajaji
might continue as president” and Prasad was not welcome since “it would involve
a change and consequent rearrangements”.
Privately supported by Patel, Prasad wrote back,
belligerent, refusing to bow out of the race. Publicly, however, Patel kept his
cards close to his chest. In his communication with Nehru, Patel gave the
impression that he didn’t have a dog in this fight, telling him that is was for
Nehru to “deal with the situation now”, giving off the impression that he would
back him. Blithely unaware of what was going on behind the scenes, Nehru kept
on writing to Patel complaining about "vigorous canvassing [that] has
taken place on this subject and there is a large majority who favour Rajendra
Babu".
On 5 October, Nehru called in a meeting of Congress MPs to
decide the matter. As he proposed Rajaji’s name for president, his words were
loudly interrupted by the MPs present. Given Nehru’s stature and his standing,
this was quite astonishing. Disoriented by the intensity of opposition, Nehru
turned to Patel for support and, of course, at that crucial moment, the Sardar
played his hand: he didn’t back-up Nehru. Stunned by this turn of events, Nehru
stopped his speech and sat down as MP after MP attacked Rajaji’s candidature.
The meeting had all but wrecked Rajaji’s chances of becoming president. It had
also deeply embarrassed Nehru—in public. So much so that Nehru threatened to
resign, the first of many such threats (a tactic our current Prime Minster also
seems to be warming
to).
History repeats
itself
Interestingly, an almost identical situation was played out
more than 50 years later at the BJP’s Goa conclave of 2002. At Vajpayee’s
behest, Narendra Modi was to resign as Chief Minister of Gujarat in the aftermath
of the 2002 Pogrom. Till the conclave started, Vajpayee was led on to believe
that he had Advani’s backing on the matter. In the background, however, Advani
had organised a coup. Dramatically, during the conclave itself, key BJP members
vociferously refused to force Modi to resign as a shocked and isolated Vajpayee
looked on. That parallels are often drawn between Nehru and Vajpayee on the one
hand and Patel and Advani on the other, make this anecdote all the more
delicious: a rather exacting case of history repeating itself.
Back to 1949: seeing that he had been outmanoeuvred quite
thoroughly, a desperate Nehru exchanged the stick for the carrot. He tempted
Prasad first with the chairmanship of the Planning Commission and then the
presidentship of the Congress; but Prasad didn’t bite.
Defeated, Rajaji announced his retirement. Later on he would
be inducted into the Cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio and, after Patel’s
death, he would go on to become the Home Minster.
After swearing in Prasad as president, Rajaji wrote him a
congratulatory letter wishing him "strength and support". While
Rajaji must obviously have been smarting at these turn of events which forced
him to become a martyred pawn in a Nehru-Patel battle, he was obviously above complaining
directly about it. In his typical wry humour though, he ended
the letter to Prasad with a postscript: "Please show this to Jawaharlal
and Vallabhbhai. I am not writing separately to them".
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