Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that Sardar Patel wanted to merge the entire Kashmir with India like other princely states, but the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not allow this to happen.
Addressing the gathering after the National Unity Day Parade near the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat’s Ekta Nagar, Modi said, “Sardar Patel believed that one should not waste time in writing history but should work hard to make it.”
Modi said, “Sardar Patel wanted to unify entire Kashmir as he had done with other princely states. But Nehru ji did not allow his wish to be fulfilled. Kashmir was divided, it was given a separate constitution and a separate flag and the country had to suffer the consequences of this mistake of the Congress for decades. Taking a dig at the Congress, he said that the Congress party has inherited the ‘slavery mentality’ from the British.
The Prime Minister said that the policies made and decisions taken by Sardar Patel created a new history. Modi said, “After independence, Sardar Patel completed the seemingly impossible task of merging more than 550 princely states into the Indian Union. The idea of One India, Best India was paramount for him.” He said, ”Sardar Patel once said that he gets the most happiness from serving the nation. I want to give this message to my countrymen that there is no greater source of happiness than dedicating oneself to the service of the nation.
Prime Minister Modi pledged to foil every conspiracy that weakens the unity of the nation to achieve the goal of a developed India and said that our government has launched a decisive and powerful attack on Naxalism and Maoism since 2014, we will root out this threat.
He said that India has decided to fight decisively against infiltration, we have to take a pledge to drive out every infiltrator from the country.
Before his address, Modi watched the National Unity Day parade in which contingents of police and paramilitary forces participated.
All contingents were commanded by women officers, including paramilitary forces such as the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and police contingents from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. A contingent of National Cadet Corps (NCC) also took part in the parade.
Earlier, the Prime Minister on Friday paid floral tributes at the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat on the 150th birth anniversary of India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and administered the “Pledge of Unity” to the people present there. He also congratulated 140 crore Indians on the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel.
Since Modi became Prime Minister for the first time in 2014, Patel’s birth anniversary is celebrated as National Unity Day on October 31 every year. In the morning, Modi reached the 182 meter high statue of Patel near Ekta Nagar in Narmada district of Gujarat and paid tribute to the Iron Man of India by offering flowers.
He then left for a nearby venue, where he administered the “Pledge of Unity” to the people present. This year the event has become even more special as the National Unity Day Parade is being organized on the lines of the Republic Day Parade.
