If Sardar Patel would have been the first PM, the future of the country would have been completely different:Narendra Modi(Video)

Ahmedabad, 29 October 2013

Chief Minister started his speech by congratulating Gujarat MP, union minister and Sardar Patel Memorial Trust head Dinsha Patel for giving excellent gift to Gujarat by making optimum use of the place with proper use of technology. Modi said he visited the exhibition in detail. He said Gujarat govt had handed over this land to Sardar Patel trust. The land is presently valued at around Rs. 1,000 crore, but the govt gave away this land for Re.1. Those who visit Sabarmati ashram will also visit this place and remember Sardar saheb with Gandhiji.

Modi thanked the Prime Minister, welcomed him and also congratulated him for giving more than 90 awards to Gujarat for good governance.

Modi spoke about Sardar’s work for unity of nation. Modi said today Maoism, terrorism have emerged as major threats to break this nation. He said he would ask the youths who are misled and are on wrong path that global powers behind such conspiracies will not succeed. This is Gandhi and Sardar’s land. The path of bombs and guns should be left and youths should join the mainstream to become partner of nation’s development. Modi gave example of Punjab in this connection.

Modi remembered how visionary and far sighted Sardar Patel as a municipal Councillor in Amdavad in 1919 moved the motiion for women’s reservation and what he proposed was unanimously accepted. Modi also remembered Sardar’s role in urban town planning when he was Mayor of Amdavad. Modi said that people in this nation believe if Sardar would have been the first prime minister of this nation, the future of the nation would have been completely different.

When Modi said this, several Congress workers present in the programme didn’t like it and started shouting.

Official release

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said that India felt the absence of Sardar Patel all the more acutely now than ever before. Had he been the first Prime Minister of India, India would have been made of a different mettle.

Speaking as the Chief Guest at a function to mark the inauguration of the newly built Sardar Patel National Museum by the Prime Minister here, Mr. Modi recalled Sardar Patel’s singular contribution in attaining the nation’s unity and integrity. He asked the nation’s youth to shun the politics of guns and bombs as Terrorism and Maoism are eating up the very fabric of the nation. He appealed to the youth to be alert to the need for unity and join the path of development. He cited the example of Punjab which shed guns and bombs to embrace development.

Mr. Modi said that when Sardar Patel was councilor of the Ahmedabad municipality, he had proposed quota for women in local self-government institutions and when he was the president he had planned town planning schemes for the city.

The Chief Minister thanked the Prime Minister for presenting seven awards to Gujarat in recognition of its march from Swaraj to Surajya, Self-Rule to Good Governance. He mentioned that Gujarat has bagged as many as 90 awards of the Central Government, besides many global awards of UNO, UNESCO and CAPAM.

Mr. Modi went around the newly constructed Sardar Patel Museum along with the Prime Minister.