“Gujarat was known as Gandhi and Sardar’s land, now Modi’s land”

Gujarat was known as land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, but now it is known as Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s land, minister of state for the legislative affairs, Pradeepsinh Jadeja, said in the Assembly today.

“Earlier, when one said that he was from Gujarat, people would say, `Oh you are from the land of Mahatma Gandhi or Sardar Patel’,” Jadeja said. “But now, when one says that he is from Gujarat, people say ‘Oh you are from Modi’s Gujarat’.”

“Modi is the third son of Gujarat after Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel,” the minister said.

To this, leader of the Opposition, Shaktisinh Gohil, said that comparing Modi with the father of the nation and the Iron man of India was an insult to those leaders. He said that nobody could be compared to the two great leaders of country.

Gohil raised a point of order on the issue and asked Jadeja to withdraw his statement. Jadeja said that he had not compared Modi with the two leaders.

Speaker Ganpat Vasava finally held that Jadeja had not criticized the two leaders or compared them with Modi, so the point of order was not valid.

However, Vasava told Gohil that he would review the video footage of the proceedings and expunge the words if found objectionable.

Jadeja, who was supposed to speak on state budget, spoke mostly about Modi, and criticized the Central government for trying to malign state’s image.