I was surprised to read an article on ‘Punditji’ under ‘Ratnavali’ column (Saamnaa – dated 4th March 2014) written by Dilip Joshi because Nehru used to hate Hindus and Maharashtra. Nehru had criticized Shivaji Maharaj in his book. He was against Mumbai being part of Maharashtra. On this issue, Finance Minister Chintamanrao Deshmukh resigned and spoke in Parliament exposing Nehru’s hatred for Maharashtra.
After India got freedom, Central Minister Vallabh bhai Patel and N. V. Gadgil took initiative in reviving famous Somnath temple in Saurashtra, Gujarat. President Dr. Rajendra Prasad was invited for inauguration program; but Nehru opposed him to go claiming that it would be against the principle of secularism.
On 16th August 1946, as Mohammad Ali Jinnah gave a call of ‘Direct Action’, Muslims started killing Hindus in this country. Muslim League’s Surhavardi was the Chief Minister of Bengal who openly encouraged riots. Thousands of Hindus started leaving Kolkata. Many Hindus requested acting Prime Minister Nehru to intervene and stop riots but he refused t do so claiming that ‘law and order’ was a ‘State subject’.
Later, many Hindu refugees shifted to neighbouring Bihar State and their tragic stories were heard by Bihari Hindus. They were infuriated and as revenge, they started killing Muslims which shocked Muslims who then, requested Nehru to send army for stopping such killings. Nehru promptly sent an army of Pathans to Bihar. These Pathans openly fired at Hindus and stopped riots.
In his address to the nation on radio, Nehru advised to forget oppression and observe peace. A Hindu refugee, whose daughter was raped, heard this and he became very angry and purposely went and stood very close to Indira Gandhi who was standing near Nehru. Nehru saw this and charged at that Hindu refugee raising his hand. Seeing this, the refugee said to Nehru, “Just now, you said that people, whose daughters were raped, should now forget about it; but I am an old man and I only stood close to your daughter; but you got so angry”.
Nehru was ashamed to hear this and he lowered his raised hand.
Vallabh bhai Patel merged 600 ‘sansthans’ in Hindustan. Patel wanted to do so even in case of Kashmir but Nehru warned Patel that he should not even look at Kashmir. In 1948, when Pakistan army barged into Kashmir, under General Kariappa, Hindustani army had won back about 66% part of Kashmir; but Nehru issued order to stop war one-sidedly and took the problem to United Nations, which is still pending with them.