About the Book

India repeatedly swears by democracy but we forget how undemocratically we selected our first Prime Minister. Of the 16 Pradesh Congress Committees across the country, 15 opted for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel while one chose Acharya J B Kripalani. This book asks the pertinent question, what if Sardar Patel had been India’s first Prime Minister? Would India’s political and development trajectories be different It also discusses Patel’s thoughts on Partition and the East Bengal problem that finally led to the formation of Bangladesh. His views on independent Princely states, on China and Communists and his views on planning and economic outlook are also explored. The ifs and buts of history are of course debatable. But was this a decision that changed the destiny of a nation and its people?

About the Author

Prafull Goradia, a former parliamentarian, enjoys writing and has authored several books. They include Dear Editor (1997), Saffron Book (2001) and Hindu Masjids (2002), a painstakingly researched work on how Hindu mandirs have been converted into masjids, predominantly in the pre-Lodi period. Krishna Rajya, which can be called India’s second book on political science after Kautilya’s Arthashastra, which sheds light on an hitherto unexplored aspect of India’s political life and Saffron Awakening (2017) are some of his major works.