Dinsha Patel, former Union Minister and veteran Congress leader from Gujarat, on Saturday, showered praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for conceptualising and building the Statue of Unity in the state, which he said was a momentous tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister as well as Home Minister of India.
In an exclusive interaction with IANS, the former Union Minister applauded the efforts and endeavours of PM Modi in bringing to reality the world’s tallest statue in honour of the ‘Iron Man of India’.
“We respect, we appreciate, and we bow down before him for building the Statue of Unity… He is my friend. We maintain a good relationship. He speaks well and addresses me with respect,” he said.
“We acknowledge whatever good PM Narendra Modi has done, and whatever is good should be accepted as good,” he added.
Interestingly, Dinsha Patel is the Congress leader who fought an electoral battle against PM Modi in the 2007 Assembly elections when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister. He was pitted against PM Modi from the Maninagar constituency but lost the elections by more than 86,000 votes.
The octogenarian leader was a Union Minister in the Congress-led UPA governments a couple of times and also served as Cabinet Minister in UPA-II.
Dinsha Patel further admitted that it was a ‘mistake’ on Congress’ part to not acknowledge and admire the contributions of Vallabhbhai Patel in upholding India’s integrity, as has been done by the BJP.
He also took strong objections to Rahul Gandhi’s claims, where the latter said that a large chunk of party workers in the Gujarat Congress were working as the ‘B-team’ of the BJP and called for purging the party of ‘unwanted elements’.
“I do not agree with him because representatives from both parties are connected and associated with each other for many social welfare works. For projects like opening a dairy outlet or a bank, they collaborate their efforts towards this,” Mr Patel said, rejecting Rahul Gandhi’s charge.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
