Hyderabad: Legal luminary, constitutional expert and historian AG Noorani has stirred hornet’s nest by questioning the wisdom of a violent military operation against Hyderabad state and blamed the operation leading to the massacre of Muslims on the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Speaking in Hyderabad on the occasion of the release of his latest book The Destruction of Hyderabad yesterday evening, AG Noorani said that calling the army invasion of Hyderabad state “Police Action” was wrong.

Pointing out that one Lieutenant General, three major generals, one armoured division and air force was used in Operation Polo, Noorani wondered how such an operation can be called “Police Action”.

“Only a dishonest man like Krishna Menon would have called this a Police Action,” he said.

The book, which provides rare insight in to the series of events leading to the Operation Polo in September 1948 to bring Hyderabad in to Indian union, also includes the full report of Sundarlal Committee which had investigated the massacre of Muslims in Hyderabad.

The report was so far largely hidden from the public view. Noorani said that the report was hushed up and suppressed at the direction of Sardar Patel. In this backdrop Noorani also compared the personalities and ideologies of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel. He described Nehru as a secular and Indian nationalist and Patel a Hindu nationalist.

Noorani was of the view that use of army against Hyderabad was unwarranted as the economic blockade against Hyderabad state had started to work.

In a scathing attack on Patel, Noorani said that Patel treated Hyderabad as a Muslim state as he hated the composite culture of Hyderabad.

“Nehru disliked the set up of Nizam but had no personal malice against him. But Patel hated Nizam and the composite culture of Hyderabad”, he said.

“Nehru liked Sarojini Naidu who was familiar with Urdu language but Patel treated her as an alien and hated her,” Noorani said.

Giving numerous examples of Patel’s thinking, Noorani said that he had a soft corner for P C Ramaswamy even though he demanded independence for Travancore and also treated the Maharaja of Kashmir with kid gloves. He appointed K M Munshi the Agent General of India in Hyderabad though he had links with RSS. In 1948 Patel questioned the patriotism of Moulana Abul Kalam Azad and invited RSS to join Congress party.

“In this backdrop what kind of treatment could the Nizam have expected from Patel”, Noorani asked.

In the same vein Noorani also lashed out at Mohammad Ali Jinnah and said that he deliberately misled the Nizam and provoked him to fight against India so that he could get another issued other than Kashmir to target India.

“He gave advice to the Nizam which was not in the interest of Hyderabad but in the interest of Pakistan,” he added.

On Razakar militia, Noorani said that the MIM did not keep it alive and it died when Qasim Rizvi left for Pakistan.

On the whole Noorani’s contention was that the unleashing military against the civilian population was a blunder, be it was against Hyderabad or in the Operation Blue Star. “Finding a political solution to the problem would be much better,” he said.