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Thursday, August 28, 2025
TopicVP Menon

Topic: VP Menon

VP Menon forced Orissa, Chhattisgarh states into a merger. Sweetened the deal with privy purses

In 'Dethroned', John Zubrzycki explores how the Nehru govt arm-twisted princely states into merging with the Indian Union.

Even Travancore, Bhopal, Indore claimed independence after 1947. Nehru brought them to heel

Convincing the headstrong rulers of the 552 princely states would require arm-twisting and result in accusations of broken promises. But that's just part of the story.

Getting princely states into the Constituent Assembly was a Patel and Menon masterstroke

In ‘We, The People of the States of Bharat,' Sanjeev Chopra talks about the formation of Indian states prior to 1956 as a result of historical accidents and circumstances.

Jaishankar, Ram Guha in Twitter spat over claim that Nehru had excluded Patel from cabinet

Foreign Minister Jaishankar tweeted quoting a biography that Nehru did not want Patel in the Cabinet in 1947 and omitted him from the initial Cabinet list.

Nehru never excluded Patel from cabinet list. Louis Mountbatten and V.P. Menon got it wrong

Only after Nehru received Patel’s assent did he send the cabinet member list to Mountbatten on 4 August. Patel not only headed the list, but was to be the deputy PM.

Mountbatten planned to partition India into many countries. Then VP Menon stepped in

India’s future had been decided in a matter of 3 hours, between 7 am and 10.30 am, by Nehru and Mountbatten. And it was VP Menon who drew up a draft.

On Camera

Severe Hyderabad internet outages make it an IT hub without the IT part

Many offices in Telangana have asked their employees to work from home because of heavy rainfall, but it has become impossible due to the internet outages.

‘Not just Russian oil, India tapped us along on trade deal,’ says US treasury secy Scott Bessent

New Delhi: The US is not worried about the rupee “becoming a reserve currency” given that it is at an all-time low versus the...

CDS on differences on theaterisation—views welcome, final call to be in nation’s best interests

The Navy has always been on board with the theaterisation plan, but the Air Force feels splitting up air assets into several theatre commands is futile & will tie up critical systems.

That Oval Office picture for ages deserves closer Indian reading, with a geopolitical lens

Putin sees this as a victory. Europeans have decided to deal with Trump on his terms for the sake of the larger Western alliance. We look at the lessons for us in India.