Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel   Statesman, 1875-1950 Iron in his Soul The source of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s strength was sacrifice, whether as a young pleader in Borsad or as potential Congress president asked to step aside thrice for his greatest rival and closest comrade, Jawaharlal Nehru. "Independent India’s leaders will neither use a foreign language nor rule from a remote place."