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| Ahead of PM, Narendra Modi's tribut |
| Ahead of PM, Narendra Modi's tribute, their parties fight over Sardar Patel's legacy
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| INDIA
, 29-October-2013
2:29:46 AM |
| Hours ahead of a function that would bring Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi together in Gujarat to pay tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, their parties sparred over the legacy of India's iron man.
As the PM and Mr Modi share the stage at the launch of a museum dedicated to India's first home minister, many expect them to deliver politically-charged messages ahead of state polls and the national election due by May.
This morning, Congress leader Manish Tewari tweeted about Sardar Patel's criticism of MS Golwalkar, an icon of the BJP's mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, in connection with the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
"9/11/1948. Patel to Golwalkar As a final result of (communal) poison, country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji," Mr Tewari tweeted.
He questioned, "I want to ask the BJP or their newly anointed pretender - do they endorse or agree with the views of Sardar Patel with regard to the RSS or if not as the CM of the Gujarat or possibly as a swayamsevak?"
This comes after another row over Mr Modi's purported remark in a newspaper interview that India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru never attended the funeral of Sardar Patel in 1950.
Congress leaders including Digvijaya Singh had lashed out at the Gujarat Chief Minister. In tweets, Mr Singh referred to the biography of another Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, which had an account of Nehru attending Sardar Patel's funeral in Mumbai, and called Mr Modi a 'megalomaniac psychopath liar'.
In a tweet this morning, Mr Modi 'thanked' the newspaper for clarifying the statement that he said was wrongly attributed to him.
The battle for Sardar Patel's legacy has been fought even within the BJP, with Narendra Modi aggressively fashioning himself as a second 'lauh purush (iron man)', an image that BJP veteran LK Advani had crafted for himself till he was sidelined by his own party.
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