NEW DELHI: Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur on Monday said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contribution to make India greatest was not told in the right manner to the country and ‘only’ one family was eulogised as if they had conducted the entire freedom struggle.
“Sardar Patel was foresighted. Today India is working on ‘Panch Pran’ (five pledges to make the country developed). Sardar Patel also did similar things for the unification of India after independence. The Government led by Narendra Modi has transformed Patel’s concept of one India into the greatest India in true sense…in the past ‘only’ one family was eulogised as if that had conducted the entire freedom struggle,” said Thakur.
He was delivering the annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on the occasion of National Unity Day, organised by All India Radio (AIR) to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first home minister who is considered the chief architect of the integration of the erstwhile princely states with the Union of India.
“But the history is witness…where the family intervened; that region has not become the part of the country in true sense. The situation of Jammu and Kashmir has been an example of this. Whenever unification of India is discussed, the efforts made by Sardar Patel are talked about repeatedly,” said the minister without naming the Nehru-Gandhi family.
He also spoke about the redevelopment of prominent religious sites including the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. “Sardar Patel had vowed to reconstruct the Somnath Temple and restore its glory in 1947 and in keeping with his ideas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had led from the front and from Somnath temple to Kashi Vishwanath corridor project to Mahakal Ujjain to the grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya have been reconstructed and transformed,” said Thakur.