Ahmedabad, 26 October 2013

“Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh confirmed and reconfirmed twice whether we were going to invite Shri Narendra Modi to inaugural function of Sardar Patel National Memorial. Prime Minister gave consent to attend the Ahmedabad function on 29 October only after personally checking that Narendra Modi was invited and his name was printed on the invitation card,” Union minister and Gujarat MP Dinsha Patel who is also heading Sardar Patel Memorial Trust told media persons today in Ahmedabad.

During the media interaction to share the details of inauguration of revamped Sardar Patel Memorial in Ahmedabad on 29 October, the union minister said, “when I went to invite the prime minister, he told me that a person heading the state also must be invited to the function, and his(Gujarat CM’s) name should be there on invitation card.”

“The PM just didn’t stop there. He called me when I was in Nadiad to ask me whether I had invited Mr. Modi,” Dinsha further said.

“Not only this, but when I went to Delhi to meet Dr. Manmohan Singh again to show him the programme details, he asked me again to show whether Narendra Modi was invited and his name was there. He confirmed it personally and said yes to the function,” Dinsha added.

When media persons asked was Dinsha expecting some political remark in the event from any of the leaders, Dinsha replied, “they are good persons and they will speak good only.”

Dinsha said he had talked to Narendra Modi over a phone call and confirmed that Modi was coming to the function.

“I rang up Narendrabhai and he told me that he would happily come to the function,” he said.

When asked whether Dinsha himself had received invitation of bhoomi poojan of Statue of Unity – world’s tallest statue featuring Sardar Patel(programme scheduled on 31st October), Dinsha replied that all central ministers had received invitation including him, Jairam Ramesh and Sharad Pawar among others. Dinsha however didn’t reply whether he and the other ministers were going to respect the invitation and attend the event.