GUWAHATI, March 1 � Both Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Ballav Bhai Patel were rather indifferent to the cause of Assam and they even bypassed the Assam Government on some vital issues. Comparatively, Patel was found to be sympathetic to the State in this respect, said Prof Nani Gopal Mahanta of the Department of Political Science, Gauhati University.
Prof Mahanta, who was delivering a lecture on a comparative analysis of Nehru and Patel in the seminar hall of the Circuit House here on Saturday under the aegis of the Assam chapter of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), said both Nehru and Patel had put a lot of pressure on the Assam Government on the issue of rehabilitation of refugees in Assam.
In the light of the continuous protests of the Assam Government against settling extra refugees in Assam, the then Minister of Rehabilitation ML Saxena managed to bypass the Assam Government and acquired some excess land of the Surma Valley tea estates to settle about 17,500 families.
Both Patel and Nehru got furious when they came to know that Bishnu Ram Medhi, then a minister in the Gopinath Bardoloi Cabinet, was planning to allot the surplus tea estate land first to the indigenous landless people, then to Assam�s tea garden labourers and after that only to the refugees. Patel regarded it to be quite contrary to the stance of the Central Government on the issue.
Patel dubbed Medhi as a narrow-minded, parochial person. Medhi and CM Gopinath Bardoloi tried their level best to convince these two stalwarts that local landless people had been agitating for land for quite some time, which was also inspired by the Communists and the Socialists.
Patel insisted that 50 per cent of the land made available by the tea estates must go to the refugees.
Patel�s next victim in Assam was the then Assam Chief Secretary SP Desai, who was critical of the Centre�s policy towards the refugees vis-�-vis Assam. He asked Bardoloi to replace the Chief Secretary. Thereafter, both Nehru and Patel posted a Chief Secretary in Assam straight from New Delhi with no experience in Assam at all.
Gopinath Bardoloi found it too difficult to accept the high-handed decision of the Centre to merge the princely State of Cooch Behar with West Bengal. The indigenous people comprising about six lakh, demanded merger of Cooch Behar with Assam. There, the Bengali-speaking people were not more than 30,000.
Ali Akbar Hydari, the then Governor of Assam, for all strategic and sensible reasons, argued for the merger of Cooch Behar with Assam.
Bardoloi thought that some sort of plebiscite would take place before deciding the final merger of the State with West Bengal and Nehru, too, hinted in this direction at a meeting in Calcutta. However, Nehru finally decided to merge Cooch Behar with West Bengal, to the dismay of Bardoloi.
Mahanta said if a comparative analysis is made between Nehru�s and Patel�s approach to issues concerning Assam, Patel was more sympathetic and understanding than Nehru. After Bardoloi�s death Nehru had sent a very formal letter, whereas Patel�s letter was full of warmth and heart. Nehru remained largely indifferent to the cause of Assam after the death of Bardoloi as he used to dislike Medhi, said Mahanta.
The lecture was chaired by IIPA Assam chapter chairman Jatin Hazarika and it was attended by a host of present and past bureaucrats of the State, besides research scholars from GU and OKD Institute of Social Change and Development.
GUWAHATI, March 1 � Both Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Ballav Bhai Patel were rather indifferent to the cause of Assam and they even bypassed the Assam Government on some vital issues. Comparatively, Patel was found to be sympathetic to the State in this respect, said Prof Nani Gopal Mahanta of the Department of Political Science, Gauhati University.
Prof Mahanta, who was delivering a lecture on a comparative analysis of Nehru and Patel in the seminar hall of the Circuit House here on Saturday under the aegis of the Assam chapter of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), said both Nehru and Patel had put a lot of pressure on the Assam Government on the issue of rehabilitation of refugees in Assam.
In the light of the continuous protests of the Assam Government against settling extra refugees in Assam, the then Minister of Rehabilitation ML Saxena managed to bypass the Assam Government and acquired some excess land of the Surma Valley tea estates to settle about 17,500 families.
Both Patel and Nehru got furious when they came to know that Bishnu Ram Medhi, then a minister in the Gopinath Bardoloi Cabinet, was planning to allot the surplus tea estate land first to the indigenous landless people, then to Assam�s tea garden labourers and after that only to the refugees. Patel regarded it to be quite contrary to the stance of the Central Government on the issue.
Patel dubbed Medhi as a narrow-minded, parochial person. Medhi and CM Gopinath Bardoloi tried their level best to convince these two stalwarts that local landless people had been agitating for land for quite some time, which was also inspired by the Communists and the Socialists.
Patel insisted that 50 per cent of the land made available by the tea estates must go to the refugees.
Patel�s next victim in Assam was the then Assam Chief Secretary SP Desai, who was critical of the Centre�s policy towards the refugees vis-�-vis Assam. He asked Bardoloi to replace the Chief Secretary. Thereafter, both Nehru and Patel posted a Chief Secretary in Assam straight from New Delhi with no experience in Assam at all.
Gopinath Bardoloi found it too difficult to accept the high-handed decision of the Centre to merge the princely State of Cooch Behar with West Bengal. The indigenous people comprising about six lakh, demanded merger of Cooch Behar with Assam. There, the Bengali-speaking people were not more than 30,000.
Ali Akbar Hydari, the then Governor of Assam, for all strategic and sensible reasons, argued for the merger of Cooch Behar with Assam.
Bardoloi thought that some sort of plebiscite would take place before deciding the final merger of the State with West Bengal and Nehru, too, hinted in this direction at a meeting in Calcutta. However, Nehru finally decided to merge Cooch Behar with West Bengal, to the dismay of Bardoloi.
Mahanta said if a comparative analysis is made between Nehru�s and Patel�s approach to issues concerning Assam, Patel was more sympathetic and understanding than Nehru. After Bardoloi�s death Nehru had sent a very formal letter, whereas Patel�s letter was full of warmth and heart. Nehru remained largely indifferent to the cause of Assam after the death of Bardoloi as he used to dislike Medhi, said Mahanta.
The lecture was chaired by IIPA Assam chapter chairman Jatin Hazarika and it was attended by a host of present and past bureaucrats of the State, besides research scholars from GU and OKD Institute of Social Change and Development.
