For the present, it would suffice to say that Prasad adroitly interlinked the Hindu Code Bill issue with the president’s powers. In September 1951, he informed Nehru that he wished to send a message to Parliament stating his fundamental objections to the Hindu Code Bill. Nehru thought that this would be unconstitutional. After consulting the attorney-general, M.C. Setalvad, who came into the picture several times, Nehru replied to Prasad that he would resign “if the president insisted. I regret to say that the president attaches more importance to his astrologers than to the advice of his Cabinet on some matters. I have no intention of submitting to the astrologers.”

Similarly, with the attorney-general backing his stand to the hilt, Nehru disabused the president of the notion that he, acting on his own and without the advice of the council of ministers, could withhold assent from the Hindu Code Bill if it was passed.

When Prasad’s tenure was due to end, Nehru was confident that he would be able to get Vice-President Radhakrishnan elected president. He liked Radhakrishnan and intellectually the two were on the same wavelength. Patel had been dead for seven years, and Nehru expected no hindrance. He was stunned therefore when strong opposition came from his close friend and colleague, Maulana Azad. The Maulana said that Prasad was a leader of the freedom movement, but when “I turn the pages of the movement’s history I find no mention of Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan”. Nehru then argued that one term for the president was enough, and that Prasad was getting on in years, in any case, Azad retorted: “You and I are no spring chickens, Jawaharlal. If Rajen Babu has to go, then we must also go.”

... contd.