Greatest Leader of Modern India

Mahatma Gandhi is a great leader and so is Nehru. People say Bose is also a great leader. But after reading few articles on Unification of India post independence, it's got to be Sardar Vallabhai Patel the most important person and the greatest leader of modern India.

Sure, Gandhi has brought the entire nation to fight against the British with the most powerful weapon, non violance that is. Nehru had a great role in building India after hundreds of years under the foreign rule. Bose is a great freedom fighter who wants to settle with nothing but independence. But there were some loose ends, and British might have given us the independence sooner or later with or with out Gandhiji. And many of the freedom fighters might have filled in the place of Nehru with out any problems. Bose anyways couldn't contribute much to Nation in the end.

But Patel, is the one who is responsible for the boundaries of what we call india now. He was the person responsible for the political integration of india from a staggering 565 princely states. Imagine having an independent states of Junagadh, Hyderabad, Travancore (kerala) and having jodhpur indore and jaisalmer as a part of Pakistan. I could imagine what could have happened in such a scenario. Another Africa??
Thanks to the great Iron Man of India. We all are Indians. We are ONE.