Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s5.31

v1.c13.s5.31

Thus Jāvid Khan was entrenched in permanent opposition to Safdar Jang, spoiling all the plans of the wazir unless heavily bribed to support him. A long series of unfriendly acts had marked the eunuch's attitude towards the wazir. He had secretly invited Nasir Jang to come and oust Safdar Jang (1748); he had prompted the Emperor to demand Safdar Jang's resignation as a disgraced man after his defeat by Ahmad Bangash (1750) and he had been induced to withdraw the order only for a present of several lakhs of Rupees; he had dismissed Safdar Jang's strongest friend Salābat Khan Mir Bakhshi and promoted his bitterest enemies, the heads of the Turāni party. Every attempt of Safdar to take the Emperor out on campaign and restore the imperial authority in the provinces had been foiled by Jāvid’s influence over that foolish youth. The wazir found that owing to his long absences from the Court on the Ruhela campaigns and administrative visits to Oudh, he had been completely effaced and the supreme executive authority in the State and the dominating influence over the Emperor had passed to the eunuch. In short, Safdar Jang felt that he could not function as imperial Chancellor, but had become a nullity and a public scorn because of the malign power behind the throne. And now the affair of Balu Jāt precipitated the storm which had been gathering all these years.