Union Minister Amit Shah on Monday said there is a public opinion that if Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had been made India's first prime minister, the country would not have faced many problems.
He was addressing students and teachers of the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Delhi on the 147th birth anniversary of Patel, India's first home minister. The school is run by the Gujarat Education Society.
The Home Minister said students and children should read up on him to know about his vision for a united India with deep roots for democracy. He said basic education should be imparted in the local language, and urged students to keep their native languages and dialects alive. "Sardar Patel was not only a man of imagination but he worked very hard to implement his vision... He was a 'karmayogi'," Shah said.
"A man who is remembered long after his death can only be called great, that was Sardar... There is a public opinion in the country that if Sardar was made the first prime minister of India, the country would not have faced many problems it is facing today," he said, recalling Patel's role in bringing together and merging more than 500 princely states to the union of India after Independence.