In Gujarat, PM Modi attacks Congress: ‘Abuse me, but do not belittle personalities like Sardar Patel’
In a veiled attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that he has no problem if his opponents keep abusing him, but they should not belittle personalities like Sardar Patel. Modi’s remarks come as a continuation of his Saturday’s statement, where he had lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his remark that the Sardar Patel’s ‘Statue of Unity’, set to be inaugurated in Gujarat on October 31, is ‘Made in China’.
Modi was in Gujarat to inaugurate a host of development projects in Anand, Khatraj and Anjar, and a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi in Rajkot. The Prime Minister inaugurated several projects of Amul in Anand, including a Rs 533 crore premium-chocolate plant with a capacity of 1,000 tonnes per month.
Speaking at the Amul event in Anand, Modi remembered Patel for his contribution to the development of a cooperative model in India. “Sardar saheb sowed the seed for a third economic model — controlled neither by government nor capitalists. Instead, it was created with the cooperation of farmers and people and everybody was a part of it. This is one viable alternative to socialism and capitalism,” Modi said. Patel was also the founder of the Amul dairy cooperative movement in Gujarat.
Modi also inaugurated a nutritional food plant, a Rs 8 crore centre of excellence in food processing of the Anand Agriculture University and a Rs 20 crore ice cream plant of the Vidya Dairy.
Modi’s caravan then headed to Anjar in Kutch district, where he addressed a gathering after inaugurating the Mundra LNG Terminal, Anjar-Mundra and the Palanpur-Pali-Barmer gas transmission projects, cumulatively worth Rs 6,216 crore. He said that the power supply from Kutch will give a fillip to Rajasthan and Punjab to move towards a gas-based economy.
Highlighting the achievements of his government in taking the central policies to the people. He said, “In 60 years, 13 crore families received gas connections in the country. In four years we have given connections to 10 crore families,
Modi then headed to Rajkot to inaugurate the Gandhi Museum at Alfred High School, Gandhi’s alma mater. Speaking at the event, Modi said that it was Gandhi, not he, who deserved the UN’s ‘Champions of the Earth’ award. Modi was conferred with the award jointly with French President Emmanuel Macron for their pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and promoting new areas of cooperation on environmental action.
“Cleanliness was an important aspect of Gandhi’s life and he used to say, if he had to choose between cleanliness and freedom, he would choose cleanliness first, such was his commitment towards cleanliness,” he told PTI.
The Prime Minister also asserted that sanitation coverage in the country has increased to 95 per cent which stood at 35 per cent in 2014.
