NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the centre of a massive commemoration today of the birth anniversary Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Home Minister, who belonged, like Mr Modi, to Gujarat.
"Without Sardar Patel, even Mahatma Gandhi seems incomplete. It was a unique partnership that strengthened the struggle for independence," the Prime Minister said after he placed flowers on a statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Delhi.
Dressed in a white kurta pyjama with a red shawl, Mr Modi then walked briskly down one of Delhi's main roads, flagging off a countrywide "Run for Unity" with thousands of participants by his side.
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Today is also the 30th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, whose assassination by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 triggered riots in which thousands of Sikhs were killed in the capital.
In a tweet, Mr Modi said, "I join my fellow countrymen and women in remembering former PM (Smt) Indira Gandhi on her Punya Tithi (death anniversary)." Referring to the communal violence that followed her death, he said, "It was a dagger into the heart of thousands of years of country's heritage and culture."
The PM and his party, the BJP, have accused the Congress of ignoring the legacy of Sardar Patel as a founding father of the country and promoting only the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Stung, the Congress has said that the PM should remember and acknowledge that the Sardar was a Congressman.
Mr Modi's government has said it will provide $33 million dollars or about Rs.3000 crore towards the construction of a massive statute in Gujarat of Sardar Patel, intended to be twice as tall as that of the Statue of Liberty
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