Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi stirred up a fresh controversy on Thursday saying the biggest tribute to Sardar Patel would have been to appoint him as India?s first Prime Minister. The Gujarat Congress has condemned his remarks.
Modi made the comment in the presence of President Pratibha Patil and several top Congress leaders of the state, including Union minister Dinsha Patel, at a function to inaugurate a community hall at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial here.
President Pratibha Patil was the chief guest and the function was organised by the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, headed by Patel.
Modi?s comments visibly stunned the Congress leaders, particularly Patel, who heads the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial Trust. Patel had avoided printing Modi?s name on the invitation cards for the function. Patel was also not willing to grant time to Modi for his speech until, according to Patel, the CMO ?repeatedly pestered? him to give Modi a seat next to the President and give him five minutes to speak.
Without directly mentioning Jawaharlal Nehru, Modi said: ?None among the politicians at the time of Independence deserved to be the first Prime Minister of India other than Sardar Patel. Appointing Sardar as the first Prime Minister of the country would have been the highest tribute to him?.
Stating that Patel hailed from a family of farmers in Gujarat, Modi remarked that suicides by farmers, as in some parts of Maharashtra, would not have taken place had Patel been made the first PM. Modi did not elaborate, however, on the assertion.
Modi also said Kashmir would not have witnessed terror had Sardar been the first PM. ?Whenever the body of any Army jawan fighting terrorists in Kashmir is sent to his village in Gujarat, the widow of the jawan and his kin say that Kashmir would not have faced terrorism if Sardar would have been made the first prime minister of the country,? he said.
State Congress spokesperson Jayantilal Parmar told the media that Modi had ?misused? the hospitality accorded to him.
