Statute of Unity: Rahul Gandhi accuses govt of ‘treason’

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 31

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the ruling BJP of “treason” saying it had destroyed every institution India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel helped to build.

An hour after Prime Minister Narendra Modi left the venue of the Sardar Patel statue, the tallest in the world, after unveiling it on the birth anniversary of the Iron Man, Gandhi tweeted, “Ironic that a statue of Sardar Patel is being inaugurated, but every institution he helped build is being smashed. The systematic destruction of India’s institutions is nothing short of treason. #StatueOfUnity”.

The Congress leaders, including Ashok Gehlot and Anand Sharma, questioned the Government for the ongoing fued with the RBI and the CBI saying the BJP was interfering with the autonomy of every institution.

Earlier, Gandhi in a tribute to Patel said Patel was a Congress man to the core and had no tolerance for communalism and bigotry.

The BJP and Congress were trapped in a war of appropriation of the Sardar’s legacy on Wednesday with the PM claiming that the nationalist had for the first time got his due in India and the Congress arguing that the BJP had no business claiming the Sardar as its own considering he had banned the RSS after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

Congress media head Randeep Surjewala quoted the Patel letters that hold the BJP’s ideological mentor RSS responsible for creating an atmosphere in which the Mahatma was killed.