Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru had spent their entire lives in the Congress. Both were considered close associates of Gandhiji, but there was a difference in their personalities like Akash and Hades. Both went to England and obtained the title of barrister, but Sardar Patel was far ahead of Nehru in the advocacy and he got the first place among the students of the entire British Empire. Nehru often used to think but Patel used to do it. Nehru was a scholar of Shastras but Patel was a knower of both Shastras and Policy. Nehru used to show his opponents only through speeches but Patel knew how to use armies along with speech. Patel had received the same education as Nehru, but Patel did not have arrogance. He himself used to say that I did not fly high in the vast sky of art or science. I have grown up in mud huts on the land of poor farmer's fields and in dirty houses of cities. Pt. Nehru was annoyed with the filth and life of the village. Pt. Nehru aspired to international fame and wanted to become a socialist prime minister.
In 1950, Patel wrote a letter to Nehru cautioning him about China's and China's Tibet policy and described China's attitude as fraudulent and treacherous. In his letter, Patel described China as his enemy, his behavior as indecent and the language of Chinese letters as the language of the future enemy. Sardar wrote that Chinese occupation of Tibet would give rise to new problems. Nehru, suffering from the communist aura, did not listen to Patel and kept on raising the slogan of Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai. India had to suffer the consequences of this in the form of the invasion of China in 1962. Patel also expressed his dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction with Nehru's policy in 1950 in letters written in the context of Nepal. After listening to a long discussion in the cabinet meeting of two hours regarding the independence of Goa in 1950, Patel only asked Nehru, 'Will we go to Goa, it is only a matter of two hours? Nehru was very angry with this. If Patel's words had been accepted, Goa would not have had to wait till 1961 for its independence.
While Patel was alert to Pakistan's proxy actions and hostile moves, he also cautioned Nehru from disruptive elements. Patel was aware of the divisiveness of the Muslim League and the Communists in India and their allegiance to Russia. Scholars are of the opinion that Patel was like Bismarck but the Times of London wrote – Bismarck's successes are insignificant to Patel. If Jawaharlal Nehru had followed the instructions of Sardar Patel, the situation in Kashmir, China, Tibet and Nepal would not have been the same as it is today. Patel was in the true sense the imagination of Manu's rule. He had the diplomacy of Kautilya and the vision of Chhatrapati Maharaj Shivaji.