secularism

How to practise 
 in government became an issue soon after independence. Within the Union government in Delhi two positions came up. One represented by Patel, the Home Minister and the other by Nehru and Maulana Azad.

The differences first got articulated when Azad insisted that the police chief of Delhi, a Sikh, should be removed from his post because Muslims had complained that he did not provide adequate protection to Muslims against attacks from Hindu and Sikh mobs. Patel insisted that the police chief was doing his level best, was not biased, and that his removal would only demoralise the force further.

The differences became even more severe when Nehru and Azad insisted that properties  vacated by Muslims who had migrated to Pakistan be reserved for other Muslims. Patel insisted that as a country committed to secularism and opposed to communal divisions, India could not reserve properties on the basis of religion. 

When Azad insisted that special efforts needed to be made to rehabilitate Muslims who had stayed back in India, Patel insisted that special efforts need be made to rehabilitate everyone who had been displaced due to the Partition.

- India history.