Historical Facts about the anointment of Nehru as the First Prime Minister of India:

Historical Facts  about the anointment of Nehru as the First Prime Minister of India:

Recent utterances of Modi that Sardar Patel would be a better choice as the First Prime Minister  can be at best considered as his personal perception – rather wild imagination. But the following historical facts are enough to show that Mr.Nehru was  preferred by Gandhi and was anointed as the First Prime Minister somewhat flouting the laid down procedures of the  then Congress Party.

By 1946, it had become quite clear that India’s independence was only a matter of time now. The Second World War had come to an end and the British rulers had started thinking in terms of transferring power to Indians.

An interim government was to be formed which was to be headed by the Congress president as Congress had won the maximum number of seats in the 1946 elections. All of a sudden, the post of Congress president became very crucial as it was this very person  who was going to become the first Prime Minister of independent India.

At that time, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was the president of Congress party. In fact, he was the president for the last six years as elections could not be held for the Congress president's post since 1940 due to Quit India movement, the Second World War and the fact that most of the leaders were behind bars.

It was a challenge to Mahatma Gandhi as well. He instructed Acharya J B kriplani to get some proposers for Nehru from the Congress Working Committee (CWC) members despite knowing fully well that only Pradesh Congress Committees were authorized to nominate the president.

In deference to Gandhi’s wish, Kripalani convinced a few CWC members to propose Nehru’s name for party president. It’s not that Gandhi was not aware of the immorality  of this exercise. He had fully realized  that what he was trying to bring about was wrong and totally unfair.

In fact, he tried to make Nehru understand the reality. He conveyed to Nehru that no PCC has nominated his name and that only a few CWC members have nominated him. A shell-shocked Nehru was defiant and made it clear that he will not play second fiddle to any body.

A disappointed Gandhi gave into Nehru's obduracy  and asked Sardar Patel to withdraw his name. Sardar Patel had immense respect for Gandhi and he withdrew his candidature without wasting any time. And it paved the way for the  coronation of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru as India’s first Prime Minister.

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