Bangalore: Modi's love for Sardar Patel in view of Lok Sabha polls: Congress
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Nov 11: Congress leader V S Ugrappa attacked Gujarat chief minister and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for his love for India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel was inspired by ulterior motives of ensuing Lok Sabha polls.
Ugrappa, who had served as the opposition leader in the state legislative council during the BJP rule in Karnataka, asked Modi to explain to the nation why he did not build the memorial or complete the statue project for Patel during the 11 years when he (Modi) ruled Gujarat as chief minister.
''There is no doubt that Sardar Patel, known as the Iron Man of India, was one the tallest leaders of the country,” Ugrappa said reminding Modi that it was Sardar Patel, who got the RSS banned during his tenure as the Home Minister in the Jawaharlal Nehru government after the assassination of the Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi.
''Sardar Patel was responsible for unifying the country,” Ugrappa said pointing out that the former was a staunch Congressman and firm believer in secularism.
The Narendra Modi government’s project for building the tallest statue of Sardar Patel as the 'Statue of Unity,’ which would be even bigger than the Statue of Liberty in New York or the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio De Janeiro, smacked of ''sheer political opportunism.”
Ugrappa said BJP had no moral authority to build the memorial for Sardar Patel as it worked against the values that he stood for such as democracy, secularism and love for the people.
Modi also did not have any principles for which the Congress veteran strived for during his long freedom struggle.
Coming down heavily on Modi's criticism of the Congress leaders that their hands were blood-stained, he said that it was in fact most appropriate for him as he ruled the State when Gujarat burned and thousands of Muslims were killed in the Godhra genocide in 2002.
''Did Modi ever utter even a token apology or express any remorse for what happened under his rule?,” Ugrappa asked.
The Congress leader reminded the BJP leader that even the then BJP-led NDA Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had asked Modi to step down for not following Raj Dharma.
''Modi managed to survive in office and continued as the Chief Minister mainly because of the support extended to him by BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani, who himself was sidelined in Modi’s zeal to become the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate,” he said.
Terming this as not a healthy sign for both the BJP as well as the country, Ugrappa alleged that Modi was bulldozing all the leaders in the principal opposition party apart from marginalizing Advani.