‘BJP appropriated Sardar Patel from Congress’

Launching a severe attack on the BJP a day ahead of the unveiling of the Sardar Patel statue, the Congress said that the BJP should install a copper plaque under the statue engraving Patel’s exchanges with RSS ideologue MS Golwalkar.  Sharma said that since the BJP does not have a leader of its own, it has appropriated Patel from the Congress. “Perhaps Modi ji does not know that it was Mahatma Gandhi who gave him the title of Sardar after the Bardoli Satyagraha. Sardar Patel was the president of the Indian National Congress party,” he said.  

“On February 4, 1948 the then prime minister (Nehru) and home minister Sardar Patel issued a directive, handwritten by Sardar Patel, banning the RSS. I would like to advise the prime minister that he might have erected the statue with the help of China, but the real tribute to Sardar will be when he installs a copper plaque where Sardar ji’s directive is engraved as well as his exchanges with Golwalkar,” said Sharma.