On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Congress on Friday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, saying that the ideology which had no role in the freedom struggle and the making of the Constitution, is trying to appropriate the legacy of the great man to serve its own interests.
Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh posted on The Iron Man of India started his advocacy from Godhra itself.
He said that the speech given by Pandit Nehru on that occasion should be read again and again, because it gives information about the deep and strong companionship of the two leaders that lasted for more than three decades.
Ramesh says, ‘On the eve of Sardar Patel’s 75th birth anniversary, Pandit Nehru had said in his message: ‘Very few people have such a long and remarkable history of service as Sardar Patel’.
According to him, Nehru had also said, ‘…I remember thirty years of friendship and close cooperation with him in national activities. This has been a time full of ups and downs and major developments that have tested us all severely. Sardar Patel has emerged from these trials as an influential and guiding personality on the Indian scene, to whom countless people look for guidance. May God give him long life for us and the country.
Ramesh said, ‘On September 19, 1963, the then President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan unveiled the statue of Sardar Patel at a major intersection near the Parliament House and the Election Commission office in New Delhi. Jawaharlal Nehru was also present at that time, and he himself chose this simple but very powerful sentence for the inscription on the statue: “The architect of the unity of India.”
The Congress leader also mentioned that on October 31, 1975, the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi had presided over the closing ceremony of the birth centenary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. According to him, on that occasion Indira Gandhi paid emotional tribute to Sardar Patel by highlighting his many special works and contributions. That statement of his is considered equally meaningful even today.
Sharing a copy of a letter written by Sardar Patel to Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Ramesh said, ‘After 2014, history has been blatantly twisted and distorted, especially by ‘G2’ and their machinery. The use of these great personalities of selfless nation-builders by that ideology for its own benefit would certainly have distressed him (Patel). ,
He claimed, ‘This is an ideology which had no contribution either in the freedom struggle or in the making of the Constitution, and which, in the words of Sardar Patel himself, created an environment which made possible the terrible tragedy of January 30, 1948 (Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination).’