11 December 2025
Pune, India
Dear Friends,
I write as a newly reformed man who has finally understood, thanks to Amit Shahji’s luminous interventions, that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was not the patriotic and farsighted statesman we liberals had mistakenly believed him to be, for it is now clear that this poor fellow, who merely anticipated the shape of independent India with uncanny precision and placed the nation’s long-term stability above every personal preference, simply lacked the deeper wisdom required to realise that Nehru was, in fact, a trap. I also now accept that Patel’s supposed iron will, the very same will that persuaded more than five hundred and sixty-two princely states to accede to the Union, that brought the Nizam of Hyderabad to heel, that secured Kashmir at the most volatile moment in our history, and that held a violent subcontinent together through sheer force of character, must have been a fragile and impressionable thing which Nehru effortlessly bent to his advantage, for Amit Shahji could not possibly be wrong in suggesting that such a man was manipulated or defrauded in an internal party decision.
Likewise, I concede that Patel’s legendary political acumen, which every serious historian credits as unmatched in the founding generation, must have been overstated, for had he truly possessed the sharpness required to navigate that moment, he would not have so foolishly exercised his own judgement or so carelessly chosen to support Nehru, a decision he took after deep deliberation, constitutional concern, and a patriot’s instinct for the country’s future. No, Amit Shahji is entirely correct to imply that Patel simply did not understand politics as well as he does. After all, Patel only forged a nation out of fragments, whereas Amit Shahji has the advantage of hindsight and a far more refined sense of strategy.
And at last I understand that it is perfectly reasonable for Amit Shahji, a modern administrative colossus who once received the Supreme Court’s gracious encouragement to broaden his experience beyond Gujarat, to offer retrospective career advice to the Iron Man of India. For who better to correct Patel’s supposed misjudgments than someone who, by his own account, is more patriotic than Patel, more farsighted than Patel, stronger-willed than Patel, and more politically astute than Patel, even though the historical record rather inconveniently suggests the exact opposite.
Truly, I stand corrected.
Mota bhai knows best.
Sardar Patel should have consulted him.
In fact, I say we build an even larger statue of Mota bhai on the banks of the Yamuna. We’ll call it the ‘Statue of Hindsight’. It may or may not get a million tourists every year, but it will allow future politicians to claim that if only it had been built elsewhere, it would have received ten million. That would be a true tribute, and I humbly submit that I be recognised as the first person to think of this idea.
I remain, most sincerely,
Kedar Anil Gadgil
A mere observer
And the first person to visualise the virat statue of Mota bhai straddling the foamy river, rising above the most-certainly-not-polluted air of Delhi.
