BJP charges Congress with keeping own leaders in shadows

Guwahati, Nov 28: The

on Thursday accused the

of keeping many of its own party stalwarts of the Independence Movement like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the shadows while promoting "only one family".

"The Congress has kept their own leaders and freedom fighters such as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Lokopriyo Gopinath Bordoloi of Assam, Rani Gaidinliu of Nagaland and Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh in the shadows. They promoted only one family," BJP Kisan Morcha national president Om Prakash Dhankar said.

Without naming any family, he said, "The government which is not able to recognise the efforts of these freedom fighters has no right to be in power.", he said.

BJP: Congress promoted only one family

"Bordoloi (first chief minister of Assam) who fought hard to keep Assam with India instead of becoming a part of the then East Pakistan during Partition was given Bharat Ratna only during the term of our Atal Behari Vajpayee government," Dhankar said while talking to reporters here.

"The problem of Kashmir had not been there if Sardar Patel had been the first Prime Minister of India," he said.

Describing him as the architect of united India, Dhankar said, "Sardar Patel's secularism put India above everything else and the country needs this today.It was his efforts that brought the princely states in India".

"Through BJP's pan-India Statue of Unity Movement, Sardar Patel has now come back to the public memory to unite the country", the BJP leader said. "The statue is an initiative of the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government to pay tribute to Sardar Patel by erecting the world's tallest statue.

It will be 182 metres tall, three times the height of the Statue of Liberty in USA", he said. The statue of India's first Home Minister would cost Rs 2500 crore and would be made of iron and soil collected from from each village in the country, he said.

The BJP Kisan morcha leader said the Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was also welcome to send iron and soil from his state for construction of the statue. Speaking on the Statue of Unity Movement, he said a workshop was held here today with the stake holders from seven North East states.

PTI