“For God’s sake understand that we have also got some sense…”
“I once more appeal to you to forget the past…You have got what you wanted.
You have got a separate state and, remember, you are the people who were responsible for it, and not those who remain in Pakistan
What is it that you want now?
…Now again you tell me and ask me to say for the purpose of securing the affection of the younger brother I must agree to the same thing again, to divide the country again in the divided part.
For God’s sake understand that we have also got some sense…
Full context and source: Meddling with nationhood by Swapan Dasgupta published 15 Jan ’12
The extent to which the discourse on the vexed issue of reservations has changed over the years is quite remarkable. When the Constitution was being framed, the remnants of the Muslim League argued that independent India should persist with the reservation of seats in legislatures for Muslims and other religious minorities. Predictably, in the aftermath of a Partition that many attributed to the system of separate electorates and the notorious Communal Award, the demand drew a sharp response from the Congress benches.
Intervening in the debate on August 28, 1947, the then home minister Sardar Patel had some harsh words for the proponents of minority reservation: “I once more appeal to you to forget the past…You have got what you wanted. You have got a separate state and, remember, you are the people who were responsible for it, and not those who remain in Pakistan…What is it that you want now? In the majority Hindu provinces you, the minorities, you led the agitation…Now again you tell me and ask me to say for the purpose of securing the affection of the younger brother I must agree to the same thing again, to divide the country again in the divided part. For God’s sake understand that we have also got some sense…”
Had a politician of standing delivered a similar speech today, it is certain that the liberal media and the assembled army of secularists would have construed it as a textbook example of a hate speech.
Related Posts: Communal Reservations via the back door?
Dividing India: One bit at a Time
More on Sachar, OBCs, reservations etc…
Literacy rates and “first claimsâ€â€¦
Reservation for Muslims by Zoya Hassan and finally, A rethink on majority and minorities…
Not just the pseudo liberals today, but even back then, the likes of Pandit Nehru could never have called a spade a spade in the manner that Sardar Patel did.
@Shantanu,
I do not understand why you would call ELM wallas ‘liberal’, ‘secular’. They are neither, they just know which side of their bread is buttered.
NDTV( Nehru Dynasty TV) keeps makes losses consistently, quarter after quarter, still manages to find some one or other to buy their spin offs or even invest in them. Coincidence, I don’t think so, I suspect quid pro quo.
“Yet, every few months, the financially beleaguered NDTV India pulls off a coup by getting deep-pocketed ‘strategic’ investors and top-flight private equity investors to abandon their stiff standards and pick up big chunks of its equity. Last week, DE Shaw group, a $20 billion investment and technology development company, picked up a 14.2% stake in NDTV providing an exit to Goldman Sachs, another blue-chip investor, which probably exited at a loss.”
http://www.moneylife.in/article/media-ndtv-continues-to-find-buyers/16183.html
Here is another gem, CWG loot lined pockets of NDTV and CNN-IBN. As expected there is complete silence on CAG report. I guess, a case of honor among thieves.
“AG report on 19th Commonwealth game spots irregularities in awarding ads to media major houses NDTV and CNN-IBN. The “Performance Audit Report on XIX Commonwealth Games (CWG-2010)†by the Comptroller and Auditor General has exposed massive irregularities in the Games’ branding.
http://indiawires.com/7059/featured/cwg-scam-ndtv-cnn-ibn-named-in-cag-audit-report/
Thanks for the comment and links Malavika..
Btw, the “liberal” reference in the post is Swapan Dasgupta’s – not mine.
“In order to emancipate the backward Muslim communities..political reservation is..necessary”. Be worried.
From ‘Muslims lagging behind SCs, STs’
TNN | Jun 25, 2012, 02.58AM IST
HYDERABAD: Voicing a unified demand for implementation of recommendations of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission or the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Muslim politicians and minority rights advocates highlighted the condition of socially backward minorities, Muslims in particular, at a discussion held at Jamat-e-Islami Hind in the Old City on Sunday.
Excerpts from Patel the pragmatist by Subhash C. Kashyap, dt November 1, 2013:
…
Patel was not a romantic idealistic visionary but a down-to-earth
realist. He did not like going out of the way to appease the Muslim
League. Rajmohan Gandhi says: “unlike Jawaharlal, who sometimes
imagined Hindu-Muslim unity when it did not exist, Vallabhbhai was
frank about the reality. Also, he felt it unnecessary to give
‘secular' wrapping to his utterances… Vallabhbhai never tried or claimed to represent Muslims and he found it natural to speak as a Hindu.”
…
Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on May 25, 1949, he said that “It would be in the interest of all to forget that there is anything like majority or minority in this country and remember that in India there is only one (Indian) community.”
…
In one of his last speeches on October 7, 1950, Patel summed up his stand by saying: “Every Indian citizen, whether Hindu or Muslim, will have to behave as an Indian, and sooner they realise this the better.” The nation today needs to see Patel in the correct perspective, without allowing politicians to appropriate his legacy, pandering to vote-banks.