HYDERABAD: While hailing the contribution of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the unification of numerous princely states into the Indian Union, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that Patel had "missed out" on Jammu and Kashmir, and praised the BJP-led NDA government for 'finally integrating' it to the country.
Shah, who was speaking during the Dikshant Samaroh of the 70th batch of IPS probationers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in Hyderabad, said, "At this opportune moment, I would like to express my gratitude to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and his work in integrating around 600 princely states, but among them Jammu and Kashmir was missed out. Today under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, article 370 was abrogated and we have managed to completely integrate J&K with India."
The BJP leader also pointed out the role the first Home Minister of the country, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, in integrating the princely state of Hyderabad with India.
"Hyderabad, where this police academy has been built, was integrated to India because of historic police action. After Independence, Vallabhbhai Patel was given the very hard task of integrating over 600 princely states to India."
"The princely started unifying with the rest of the country, one after another due to the efforts of Patel, but Hyderabad's Nizam during that time did not want to accede to India. It was because of the police action taken under the leadership of Vallabhbhai Patel that Hyderabad, Telangana, parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka were unified with the rest of the country," Shah added.
Amit Shah, addressing the future officers, urged them to follow the path of over 30,000 police officers who were martyred due to insurgency, terrorist activities and so on.
Later, he pointed out PM Modi's policy of SMART policing, which stands for Sensitive, Moral, Alert, Responsible and Tech savvy. He also praised the probationers, who he said were mostly from middle class and poor families and urged them to strive to make the country better.