Page 15 - seniors today August issue
P. 15

Bhai Pratap with Acharya Kripalani emersing Gandhiji’s ashes in Kandla waters

        – Parsi and Sindhi. Although Bhai Pratap was          the migrants of West Pakistan. But when he
        the first to get an Honourable Pardon from the        needed help to fight the fraudulent corruption
        Government of India, it was delayed to coincide       case against him no one came forward to help
        with Nanavati’s pardon so that both Parsis and        him – high-powered leaders (like Rajendra
        Sindhis could be mollified at the same time.          Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru and others) were
        Ram Jethmalani played a stellar role in making        too busy in the politics of new India, forgetting
        Father’s as well as Nanavati’s pardon actually        the paramount role father played in funding
        materialise. But he made it very clear – Bhai         them and giving them shelter and resources
        Pratap was an innocent man, unjustly accused          during the struggle.
        and then honourably acquitted, but Nanavati            Senior journalist Bachi Karkaria, writing in
        was a self-proclaimed criminal who spent              Ahmedabad Mirror, has called Bhai Pratap
        several years in jail before getting his freedom.     “Kandla’s Unsung Hero”, who has been given
        “Bhai’s pardon was superior – it wholly               little or no recognition for building Kandla
        destroyed the stigma of guilt and conferred the       Port which has now been renamed as Deen
        rewardof total innocence on him. Nanavati was         Dayal Port. She has said, “Today the port
        shown mercy on the basis of Mamie Ahuja’s             is one of the richest in the country and part
        reference to the guilt of her brother being an        of a special economic zone – the first of its
        exonerating factor for him”.                          kind in Asia. However, there’s hardly any
        It has been widely quoted today, that Bhai            acknowledgment that this was due to Bhai
        Pratap was not given enough recognition for           Pratap’s vision.”
        the stellar work done by him straight after
        Partition, in the building of the tri-city and port.
        He had also worked tirelessly for the freedom
        struggle in Sindh and in independent India for

        15
                                                                                   SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 2
   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20