Kashmir, 10/10: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel resolved issues of merger of other princely states, but “one person” could not resolve the Kashmir issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, in a veiled attack on India’s first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Addressing a rally in Gujarat’s Anand district ahead of the state Assembly elections due this year-end, Modi said he was able to resolve the long-pending Kashmir issue as he is walking in the footsteps of India’s first home minister Sardar Patel. Modi also said that “Urban Naxals” had tried to stall Sardar Patel’s dream project of the Sardar Sarovar dam. ‘Urban Naxal’ term is often used by some segments of the political spectrum to describe sympathisers of the Naxalism cause as well as certain social activists.
“Sardar saheb persuaded all the princely states to merge with India. But another person handled this one issue of Kashmir,” Modi said, without naming India’s first prime minister. “As I am following in the footsteps of Sardar saheb, I have values of the land of Sardar and that was the reason I resolved the problem of Kashmir and paid true tributes to Sardar Patel,” Modi said.
