Why Jawaharlal Nehru was made first PM of india.

THE TRUTH OF FIRST INDIAN PRIME MINISTER

Maulana Azad was elected Congress president within the Ramgarh Session in 1940. As there were various factors like world war II, Quit India Movement and most of the Congress leaders being in jails, Azad continued to be the Congress president until April 1946.

As the war was coming to an end, it had been becoming clear that India’s freedom isn't very far. it absolutely was also very clear that the Congress president, shall be invited to create the interim government at the Centre — because of the amount of seats within the Central Assembly the Congress had won in 1946 elections.

Once the election for the post of the Congress president was announced, Maulana Azad expressed his desire for the re-election. Maulana writes in his autobiography,


“The question normally arose that there should be the fresh Congress elections
and a replacement President chosen. As soon as this was mooted within the Press,
a general demand arose that I should be selected President for an additional term….” This “agonised Azad’s close friend and colleague Jawaharlal who had his own selfish expectations.” However, on 20 April 1946, Gandhiji made his choice known within the favour of Nehru. Despite Gandhiji’s open support for statesman, the Congress party overwhelmingly wanted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel because the president and consequently the primary Prime Minister of India, because Patel was considered “a great executive, organizer and leader” along with his feet firmly on the bottom. At that point only the Pradesh Congress Committees could nominate and elect the Congress president. And April 29, 1946 was the last date for the nominations for the post of the Congress president, and thereby the primary Prime Minister of India..

A record of the Congress party documents shows that despite of Gandhiji having made his choice known, 12 out of 15 Pradesh Congress Committees nominated Sardar Patel. The three remain abstained from nomination process.

Thus, no Pradesh Congress Committee, the sole legitimate body to nominate and elect the President, nominated Jawaharlal Nehru.
However, Nehru was proposed by some working committee members who had no authority to try to to so. After this, efforts began to steer Sardar Patel to withdraw in favour of Jawaharlal. To resolve the difficulty, Gandhi said to Nehru:
“No PCC has advocate your name…only [a few members of] the working committee has.”

This remark of Gandhiji was met by Jawaharlal with “complete silence”. Once Gandhiji was informed that “Jawaharlal won't take the second place”, he asked Patel to withdraw. Rajendra Prasad lamented that Gandhiji “had once more sacrificed his trusted lieutenant for the sake of the “glamorous Nehru” and further feared that “Nehru would follow the British ways"    

When Rajendra Prasad was using the phrase “once again”, he indeed was concerning the denial of Congress president-ship to Patel in 1929, 1937 and 1946 in preference to Nehru; and always at the last moment.
Patel accepted to have the second position because of two reasons: firstly, for Patel, post or position was immaterial; and secondly, Nehru was keen that “either he would take  spot one within the government or stay out. Vallabhbhai also reckoned that whereas office was likely to moderate Nehru, rejection would drive him into opposition. Patel shrank from precipitating such an outcome, which might bitterly divide India.”

Maulana Azad, who had issued an announcement on 26 April 1946, three days before the last date of nomination, to elect Nehru as Congress president, wrote in his autobiography, published posthumously in 1959:
“After weighing the pros and cons I came to the conclusion that the election of Sardar Patel wouldn't be desirable within the existing circumstances. Taking all facts into consideration it perceived me that Jawaharlal should be the new President….
“I acted in keeping with my best judgment but the way things have shaped since then has made to grasp that this was perhaps the best blunder of my political life. …It was a big mistake that I didn't support Sardar Patel. … He would have not committed the error of Jawaharlal… I can never forgive myself once I think that if I had not committed these mistakes, perhaps the history of the last ten years would are different.”

Michael Brecher, one amongst the foremost sympathetic biographers of Nehru, writes:
“In accordance with the time-honoured practice of rotating the Presidency, Patel was in line for the post. Fifteen years had elapsed since patel presided over the Karachi session whereas Nehru had presided at Lucknow and Ferozpur in 1936 and 1937. Moreover, Patel was the overwhelming choice of the Provincial Congress Committees…. Nehru’s ‘election’ was thanks to Gandhi’s intervention. Patel was persuaded to step down….
“If Gandhi had not intervened, Patel would are the primary actual Premier of India, in 1946-7…. The Sardar was ‘robbed of the prize’ and it rankled deeply.”
Looking back in any respect those tumultuous years C. Rajagopalachari, who had all the explanations to be angry, and uncharitable to Sardar Patel because it had been Patel who deprived Rajaji the primary President ship of India, wrote in Bhawan’s Journal in 1972 (almost 22 years after Patel’s death):
“Undoubtedly it'd are better if Nehru had been asked to be the minister and Patel made the Prime Minister. I too fell into the error of believing that Jawaharlal was the more enlightened person of the two… This was a wrong notion but it had been the prevailing prejudice.”

Prof. Makkhan Lal is Founder Director of Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management and currently Distinguished Fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation.

Whatever you conclude it as Gandhi stubbornness Or overrated national leader ,the irresponsible decision taken by this overrated leader had cost India a huge loss in variety of POK, Chinese invasion, Nepotism, Failure of policies etc which might never be compensated.

Sources
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, 1959, India Wins Freedom
Rajmohan Gandhi, 1991, Patel: A Life
Durga Das, 1969, India From Curzon to Nehru and After
Brecher, 1959, Nehru: A Political Biography
C. Rajagopalachari, in Swarajya
The Print article (In Patel vs Nehru saga, remember that India’s first PM wasn’t elected unanimously

 

                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

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