Ravi Shankar Prasad returns Jaipal salvo

‘Why no Bharat Ratna to Azad during Nehru-Gandhi rule?’ questions Union Law Minister

Hyderabad: Questioning as to why Maulana Azad was not conferred the Bharat Ratna during the rule of Nehru-Gandhi family, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday alleged that leaders critical of the first Prime Minister were not given the respect they deserved.

Hitting back at senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy, the Law Minister said differences between Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru are too well known and there was also a difference initially between the two on the 1948 "police action" following which the Hyderabad state, which was under the Nizam's rule, merged with the Indian Union.

"He (Jaipal Reddy) has said there were no differences (between Nehru and Patel) and that they were comrades- in - arms for 10 years. Jaipal Reddy was saying that the Law Minister (Prasad) was speaking unlawfully. I was not speaking unlawfully. I was speaking factually," Prasad told PTI here.

The senior BJP leader asked why Patel, a "great Indian" who unified in India and died in 1950, was given the country's highest civilian award only in 1991. "Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister for 14 years thereafter (after 1950) and his daughter Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister for 16 years thereafter.

Why is it that so many people were given Bharat Ratna for good reasons, but this great Indian Sardar Patel was ignored? It was only when (P V) Narasimha Rao outside the (Nehru-Gandhi) family became Prime Minister in 1991 that he was given a Bharat Ratna," he noted. He also asked as to why Maulana Azad, another great Indian who died in 1958, was given Bharat Ratna only in 1992.