Kalol (Guj): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who paid “real tribute” to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel by building the Statue of Unity and a dedicated museum for him and accused the Congress of ignoring his contribution.
The Statue of Unity, built in honour of Sardar Patel, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat’s Narmada district is the tallest such structure in the world at 182 metres. It was inaugurated by PM Modi in October 2018.
Addressing a gathering after inaugurating a statue of Sardar Patel in Kalol, the senior BJP leader said that the Congress party did not even build a memorial for him where he was cremated.
“You would not know the work done by Sardar Patel if you did not travel out of Gujarat. When I was in Gujarat, I used to think that I knew everything about him. But after I went out (of the state) as party functionary at the national level, I could fully comprehend the task he carried out,” Shah said.
As the first home minister of Independent India, Sardar Patel is credited with uniting hundreds of princely states into the Union with his mix of persuasion and firmness.
“When we got independence, Britishers said that over 500 princely states would have the right to join India or Pakistan or remain independent. They would have thought that India would not be able to come together. But they did not know who Sardar Patel was. He united the country in 1.5 years,” he said.
Shah said when he visited places like Hyderabad and Jodhpur, people there told him it was due to Sardar Patel that they were in India.
“The Congress, in its bid to promote one family, ignored the contribution of Sardar Patel. No memorial was built for Sardar Patel where he was cremated. No museum of Patel was there in the country and those there were not proper,” he said.
“It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who paid real tribute to Sardar Patel by building the Statue of Unity and a proper museum for him,” he said.
When Sardar Patel died he would have been troubled that Jammu and Kashmir was not integrated properly into India, Shah said and added, “PM Modi, by revoking Article 370 (which gave special status to J&K), completed that work.” Shah said that Modi has accomplished the work of building the Ayodhya Ram Temple and it will be inaugurated on January 22 next year.
The Congress was not bothered when ‘Shri Ram Lalla’ was in a tent, he said.
“The temple was destroyed four hundred years ago but they (Congress) did not care. Many people lost their lives in the struggle to build the Ram Temple. PM Modi laid the foundation stone of the temple and on January 22, the Lord will be in his temple,” Shah said.
After January 22, the Union minister said, trains will run from Ahmedabad to Ayodhya every day for the next 80 days. He requested the people of Kalol to visit the Ayodhya temple using trains and chant “Jai Shri Ram” when they prayed at the temple.
Earlier, addressing a small gathering at Pansar village where he inaugurated a lake, Shah requested people to visit the village temple on January 22 and celebrate when the Ayodhya temple is inaugurated.
After next year’s general elections, he asserted, PM Modi will be re-elected for a third term with more seats than what the BJP-led NDA had bagged (303 seats) in 2019.
“People of this INDI Alliance will just be getting their pictures clicked at get-togethers, they would not make any impact,” he said, referring to the opposition bloc of more than two dozen parties.
Shah is on a day’s visit to his constituency Gandhinagar to attend various programmes.
Earlier, addressing a gathering of beneficiaries of the PM SVANidhi scheme, which helps street vendors get easy loans, in Ahmedabad, he said PM Modi wants to make 140 crore people, including the poor, in the country “atmanirbhar” (self-reliant) and has worked with dedication for it.
PTI
PM Modi paid real tribute to Sardar Patel by building Statue of Unity: Shah
