Editing Vallabhbhai Patel (section)

== Leading India ==
The [[Governor-General of India]], [[Chakravarti Rajagopalachari]], along with Nehru and Patel, formed the "triumvirate" that ruled India from 1948 to 1950. Prime Minister Nehru was intensely popular with the masses, but Patel enjoyed the loyalty and the faith of rank and file Congressmen, state leaders, and India's civil servants. Patel was a senior leader in the [[Constituent Assembly of India]] and was responsible in large measure for shaping India's constitution.<ref name="constitution">{{Cite web |title=Sardar Patel was the real architect of the Constitution |url=http://www.rediff.com/freedom/22patel.htm |work=[[Rediff.com]] |access-date=19 April 2006 |archive-date=5 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060505154446/http://www.rediff.com/freedom/22patel.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Patel was the chairman of the committees responsible for minorities, tribal and excluded areas, fundamental rights, and provincial constitutions. Patel piloted a model constitution for the provinces in the Assembly, which contained limited powers for the state governor, who would defer to the president{{snd}}he clarified it was not the intention to let the governor exercise power that could impede an elected government.<ref name="constitution" /> He worked closely with Muslim leaders to end separate electorates and the more potent demand for reservation of seats for minorities.{{sfn|Munshi|1967|p=207}} His intervention was key to the passage of two articles that protected civil servants from political involvement and guaranteed their terms and privileges.<ref name="constitution" /> He was also instrumental in the founding the [[Indian Administrative Service]] and the [[Indian Police Service]], and for his defence of Indian civil servants from political attack; he is known as the "patron saint" of India's services. When a delegation of Gujarati farmers came to him citing their inability to send their milk production to the markets without being fleeced by intermediaries, Patel exhorted them to organise the processing and sale of milk by themselves, and guided them to create the [[Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited]], which preceded the [[Amul]] milk products brand. Patel also pledged the reconstruction of the ancient but dilapidated [[Somnath Temple]] in [[Saurashtra (region)|Saurashtra]]. He oversaw the restoration work and the creation of a public trust, and pledged to dedicate the temple upon the completion of work (the work was completed after his death and the temple was inaugurated by the first President of India, Dr.{{nbsp}}Rajendra Prasad).

When the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1947|Pakistani invasion of Kashmir]] began in September 1947, Patel immediately wanted to send troops into Kashmir. But, agreeing with Nehru and Mountbatten, he waited until Kashmir's monarch had acceded to India. Patel then oversaw India's military operations to secure [[Srinagar]] and the Baramulla Pass, and the forces retrieved much territory from the invaders. Patel, along with Defence Minister [[Baldev Singh]], administered the entire military effort, arranging for troops from different parts of India to be rushed to Kashmir and for a major military road connecting Srinagar to [[Pathankot]] to be built in six months.{{sfn|Rajmohan Gandhi|1990|p=455}} Patel strongly advised Nehru against going for arbitration to the United Nations, insisting that Pakistan had been wrong to support the invasion and the accession to India was valid. He did not want foreign interference in a bilateral affair. Patel opposed the release of Rs.{{nbsp}}550&nbsp;million to the [[Government of Pakistan]], convinced that the money would go to finance the war against India in Kashmir. The Cabinet had approved his point but it was reversed when Gandhi, who feared an intensifying rivalry and further communal violence, went on a fast-unto-death to obtain the release. Patel, though not estranged from Gandhi, was deeply hurt at the rejection of his counsel and a Cabinet decision.{{sfn|Rajmohan Gandhi|1990|p=463}}

In 1949 a crisis arose when the number of Hindu refugees entering [[West Bengal]], Assam, and [[Tripura]] from [[East Pakistan]] climbed to over 800,000. The refugees in many cases were being forcibly evicted by Pakistani authorities, and were victims of intimidation and violence.{{sfn|Rajmohan Gandhi|1990|p=497}} Nehru invited [[Liaquat Ali Khan]], Prime Minister of Pakistan, to find a peaceful solution. Despite his aversion, Patel reluctantly met Khan and discussed the matter. Patel strongly criticised Nehru's plan to sign a pact that would create minority commissions in both countries and pledge both India and Pakistan to a commitment to protect each other's minorities.{{sfn|Rajmohan Gandhi|1990|p=498}} [[Syama Prasad Mookerjee]] and K.{{nbsp}}C.{{nbsp}}Neogy, two [[Bengali people|Bengali]] ministers, resigned, and Nehru was intensely criticised in West Bengal for allegedly appeasing Pakistan. The pact was immediately in jeopardy. Patel, however, publicly came to Nehru's aid. He gave emotional speeches to members of Parliament, and the people of West Bengal, and spoke with scores of delegations of Congressmen, Hindus, Muslims, and other public interest groups, persuading them to give peace a final effort.{{sfn|Rajmohan Gandhi|1990|p=499}}

In April 2015 the Government of India declassified surveillance reports suggesting that Patel, while Home Minister, and Nehru were among officials involved in alleged government-authorised spying on the family of [[Subhas Chandra Bose]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 April 2015 |title=Nehru 'snooping' on Netaji's kin gives BJP anti-Congress ammunition |work=The Times of India |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Nehru-snooping-on-Netajis-kin-gives-BJP-anti-Congress-ammunition/articleshow/46883283.cms |access-date=11 April 2015 |archive-date=14 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414031208/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Nehru-snooping-on-Netajis-kin-gives-BJP-anti-Congress-ammunition/articleshow/46883283.cms |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Father of All India Services ===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = ''There is no alternative to this administrative system... The Union will go, you will not have a united India if you do not have good All-India Service which has the independence to speak out its mind, which has sense of security that you will standby your work... If you do not adopt this course, then do not follow the present Constitution. Substitute something else... these people are the instrument. Remove them and I see nothing but a picture of chaos all over the country''.
 |author = [[Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel]]
 |source = {{small|in Constituent Assembly discussing the role of [[All India Services]].}}<ref name="Discussion in Constituent Assembly on role of Indian Administrative Service">{{Cite web |title=Discussion in Constituent Assembly on role of Indian Administrative Service |url=http://164.100.47.194/Loksabha/Debates/cadebatefiles/C10101949.html |access-date=26 January 2010 |website=[[Parliament of India]] |archive-date=14 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180214014527/http://164.100.47.194/Loksabha/Debates/cadebatefiles/C10101949.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=31 October 2018 |title=Sardar Patel's great contribution was the Indian Administrative Service |work=[[The Economic Times]] |location=New Delhi |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/sardar-patels-great-contribution-was-the-indian-administrative/articleshow/61356227.cms |access-date=21 January 2018 |oclc=61311680 |archive-date=22 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180122011101/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/sardar-patels-great-contribution-was-the-indian-administrative/articleshow/61356227.cms |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":Save the integrity of the civil service">{{Cite web |last=Noorani |first=A.G. |date=2 July 2017 |title=Save the integrity of the civil service |url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/op-ed/020717/save-the-integrity-of-the-civil-service.html |access-date=4 September 2017 |website=[[Deccan Chronicle]] |archive-date=11 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911022509/http://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/op-ed/020717/save-the-integrity-of-the-civil-service.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
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He was also instrumental in the creation of the [[All India Services]] which he described as the country's "Steel Frame". In his address to the probationers of these services, he asked them to be guided by the spirit of service in day-to-day administration. He reminded them that the [[Indian Civil Service|ICS]] was no-longer neither Imperial, nor civil, nor imbued with any spirit of service after Independence. His exhortation to the probationers to maintain utmost impartiality and incorruptibility of administration is as relevant today as it was then. "A civil servant cannot afford to, and must not, take part in politics. Nor must he involve himself in communal wrangles. To depart from the path of rectitude in either of these respects is to debase public service and to lower its dignity," he had cautioned them on 21 April 1947.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Naidu |first=M Venkaiah |author-link=Venkaiah Naidu |date=31 October 2017 |title=The great unifier |url=http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/sardar-vallabhbhai-patel-birth-anniversary-india-narendra-modi-bjp-4914433/ |access-date=21 January 2018 |website=[[The Indian Express]] |oclc=70274541 |archive-date=21 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121164148/http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/sardar-vallabhbhai-patel-birth-anniversary-india-narendra-modi-bjp-4914433/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He, more than anyone else in post-independence India, realised the crucial role that civil services play in administering a country, in not merely maintaining law and order, but running the institutions that provide the binding cement to a society. He, more than any other contemporary of his, was aware of the needs of a sound, stable administrative structure as the lynchpin of a functioning polity. The present-day all-India administrative services owe their origin to the man's sagacity and thus he is regarded as Father of modern [[All India Services]].<ref name="One Who Forged India’s Steel Frame">{{Cite web |title=One Who Forged India's Steel Frame |url=https://www.boloji.com/articles/15210/one-who-forged-indias-steel-frame |access-date=15 November 2016 |publisher=H.N. Bali |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806135710/https://www.boloji.com/articles/15210/one-who-forged-indias-steel-frame |url-status=live }}</ref>