Patel vs Nehru

There is fallacy in pitching Patel against Nehru. They were never opponents. Without Nehru's support Patel could not have achieved anything. In fact it has been bane for this nation that collective achievements are credited to individuals because of the position they hold. Manmohan Singh is repeatedly credited with Reforms'90 as if Narsimha Rao never existed who revived retired career professional and brought him to politics and provided opportunity to excel by extending his support. If you like to dig deeper you won't be able to ignore V. P. Menon who was real practical 'instrument' making possible integration of 500 states into Union and actions at Hyderabad and Junagarh . I remember my father telling us story about the eloquence of Menon at capital of Sirmur State , Nahan, when he asked Raja, in a public gathering (where he was present), to sign instrument of accession . Who gives credit to this man ? NONE. There are numerous examples where collective achievements were credited to individuals. That does not mean to lower esteem of leaders like Patel, Nehru or Ambedkar. In fact they themselves would have laughed at so much of faith for every,otherwise collective act, put on them. They were great leaders who provided steam to the engines which traversed the success path . But we should not create illusions by looking at history with bias of our personal liking.