The BJP on Tuesday hit out at the Congress for criticising its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is erecting a statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat as ‘statue of unity’. The party was also critical of the JD(U), its former ally, for acting like a B-team of the Congress.
“Congress has never seen beyond one family. They want to apportion the entire credit for the freedom movement, but never bothered about taking care of the memory of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, lala lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tialk, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and many others,” former BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu said.
Naidu pointed out that more than 450 Government schemes, projects, road, buildings and institutions have all been named after three members of the Gandhi family —Jawahar lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi — and rued that similar treatment was not meted out to many other stalwarts of the freedom struggle.
“Sardar Vallabbhai Patel belonged to the entire country, not to one single party, one religion or one region. He was a national icon who, with iron hands, unified the country. Erection of the tallest statue of unity in his memory is only service to the nation and a great tribute to a great leader of the nation,” Naidu said. BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi hit out at the JD(U) for trying to vitiate the atmosphere after the Patna rally blasts by making false charges and expressing its “arrogance” towards the people.
BJP fielded its senior leaders to hold press conferences in 23 cities across the country to attack the JD(U) government in Bihar and the Congress-led UPA for the blasts at Modi’s rally in Patna in particular and their attitude towards combating terrorism.Naqvi quipped that JD(U) had all along held anti-Congress belief but has now “converted” to become “pro-Congress”.