Administrative Thinkers Series - 1
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
By Lieutenant Colonel H Sarat Singh
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was born in a village of Saurashtra and belonged to a humble farmer's family. This gave him direct insight into the problems and anxieties of the peasantry in rural India. It was but natural that he was a peasant in his outlook all his life. He lived a simple, Spartan life. His father had participated in the 1857 war of independence, and thus burning patriotism was his heritage, and not an acquired attribute.
Patel was born and brought up in extremely ordinary circumstances, which made him deeply familiar with adversity and all that it entails. He thus had direct knowledge of the trials and tribulations of the common man of the land. The taste of adversity perhaps bred in him an urge to stand on his own feet. By sheer hard work he rose to become a flourishing barrister, which enabled him to lead a life of comfort, even luxury, and adopt a western lifestyle. But his contact with the Mahatma transformed him, and he adopted the Gandhian way of life.
He was a multi-faceted personality in modern political Indian history. As an administrator he had no equal. He was the unifier of India, as we understand it today. He was a front ranking administrative actionist. He accomplished his mission of unifying India in less than five years! What is more, his administrative actions cover a wide terrain. When pieced together, they make up what may be called ideal public administration in a democracy.
It is futile to look to Sardar Patel as an administrative Pluto immersed in propounding an
administrative Utopia. Patel was earthy, and of the earth. He was a realist, and was imbued with a single unwavering motto. He was a staunch patriot and his sole mission after achieving independence was to achieve unification of India and strengthen its public administration, the prime instrument of both stability and development. His realism gave him flexibility of
approach.
Since Patel was grappling with the nascent problems inherent in the process of state building and nation making, he had to cultivate a robust spirit of accommodation and tolerance. He would not budge from his basic goal but at the same time evolve a strategy tailored to a particular situation. In other words, Sardar Patel was a rare combination of a statesman and
and an administrator. A statesman has a vision, a perspective, a framework, but he need not be a good administrator, he may not know how to get his vision realized. Similarly, an administrator may not have a dream, a vision. Sardar Patel was both a far-sighted statesman and an able administrator.
He exercised the utmost care in looking after the financial accounts of the Congress during his tenure as its president. He kept an eye on the party machine as well as the Congress ministries. He would not spare anyone found indulging in corruption. He openly expressed his displeasure when one R.K. Sidhwa of Sindh did not deposit to the party the funds collected for the Karachi Congress Session in 1931, and even "threatened to take disciplinary action if the amount was not refunded".
It is interesting in this context to recall that he took positive action to ensure that his son
(Dahyabhai) did not get any out-of-turn benefit. In a letter dated 22 August, 1950 written to his colleague Ajit Prasad Jain, Patel was very explicit: "While Dahyabhai's personal and business interests are his own affairs, and I have nothing to do with them - nor do I take any interest in them - it is impossible for me to prevent him from safeguarding or promoting those interests. All that I am interested in is to ensure that no considerations in extended to him because he happens to be my son".
Yusuf Meherally, a great leader with socialist leanings during the national movements, paid homage to Sardar Patel for his administrative ability. He observed that Patel "is the ablest organizer in India and the most ruthless. With his own hands he has created and built up a powerful political machine, that has not only broke numerous political opponents but has more than once baffled the skilful foreign bureaucracy and filled it with grave apprehensions for the future." During his lifetime, Patel controlled the Congress machinery in the provinces and other looked upon him with a mixture of respect and fear. Like the rest of his countrymen, Patel was an avowed critic of the colonial bureaucracy. As president of the Indian National Congress, in 1931, Sardar Patel criticized public administration for its extravagance.
He declared: "We have been taught to think that our civil administration will be inefficient and corrupt if we give up the able assistance of highly paid British civilians. The administrative powers that the Congress has exhibited during recent years and the fact of its having on an ever-increasing scale drawn to its assistance some of the best young men and women either without pay or on a mere pittance should sufficiently dispose of the fear of corruption or inefficiency.
It would be too great a strain upon our poor purse to have to pay by way of insurance against
corruption a premium out of all proportion to the highest possible estimate of corruption that may even take place." He concluded: "It will therefore, be necessary if India is to come to her own, to demand a heavy reduction in the Civil Service expenditure and a consequent reduction in the emoluments of the civil service." Independence, however, changed his stance.
(To be continued next week)
(Courtesy: The Imphal Free Press) |
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