Gandhinagar, March 15 Dinsha Patel, former Union Minister and veteran Congress leader from Gujarat, on Saturday, showered praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for conceptualising and building the Statue of Unity in the state, which he said was a momentous tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister as well as Home Minister of India.
In an exclusive interaction with IANS, the former Union Minister applauded the efforts and endeavour of PM Modi in bringing to reality -- the world's tallest statue in honour of the 'Iron Man of India'.
"We respect, we appreciate, and we bow down before him for building the Statue of Unity... He is my friend. We maintain good relationship. He speaks well and addresses me with respect," he said.
"We acknowledge whatever good PM Narendra Modi has done, and whatever is good should be accepted as good," he added.
Interestingly, Dinsha Patel is the Congress leader who fought electoral battle against the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in 2007 Assembly elections. He was pitted against PM Modi from Maninagar constituency but lost elections by more than 86,000 votes.
The octogenarian leader was a Union Minister in the Congress-led UPA governments, a couple of times and also served as Cabinet Minister in UPA-II.
Dinsha Patel further admitted that it was a 'mistake' on Congress' part to not acknowledge and admire the contributions of Vallabhbhai Patel in upholding India's integrity, as has been done by the BJP.
He also took strong objections to Rahul Gandhi's claims, where the latter said that a large chunk of party workers in Gujarat Congress were working as 'B-team' of BJP and called for purging the party of 'unwanted elements'.
"I do not agree with him because representatives from both parties are connected and associated with each other for many social welfare works. For projects like opening a dairy outlet or a bank, they collaborate their efforts towards this," Patel said, rejecting Rahul Gandhi's charge.
--IANS
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