Advani attends Ahmedabad ‘run’,says it’s a tribute to Patel

Expressing his pleasure on the occasion,Advani said this event was a true tribute to Sardar Patel and thanked the participants for turning up in large numbers. He said that while Sardar Patel had united the country,the BJP would resolve to make India the best.

While commemorating the 63rd death anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,the run also marks the beginning of a campaign to collect iron tools from all over the country for the Statue of Unity.

Remembering the day the country got its independence in 1947,Advani said he was immensely happy that day,but could not celebrate it because he was in Karachi at that time. He also said he was saddened by the country’s Partition that caused severe trauma and suffering to the people “including my parents” there. “I was saddened by the trauma and pain suffered by our people,including my own parents,” he said.

“When the British left the country,they had imagined that they had not just partitioned India,but with that also freed the 570-odd princely states from mainland India. But Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel unified the country and made India one; we now make a resolve to make India the best,” he said.

He expressed faith that the campaign for collection of iron from all over the country to build the Statue of Unity near the Sardar Sarovar dam would make Indians feel proud,when visitors from all over the world would come to see it and remember the contribution of Sardar Patel as a unifier of the country into a great nation.

On the occasion,Ahmedabad mayor Minaxi Patel thanked everyone who had come to take part in the event.

Advani sees no alliance with AAP

Declining to make any specific comments on the current political situation in the wake of the Assembly elections,L K Advani said,“On the current political situation,I won’t make any specific comment. We have won in all four states and we have formed governments in three of them…except Delhi. It is no big deal,such things keep happening in life,” he said.

However,he ruled out any alliance with the Aam Admi Party. Advani said there was “no question of joining hands with Aam Admi Party to form a government in Delhi”.

“We have passed through situations in the past when we (BJP) were left with only two members in the Lok Sabha. But later we had formed the government under Vajpayeeji for two terms. I am proud of what we have achieved in those six years under Vajpayeeji,” he added,when asked about the party’s next move regarding the elections’ outcome.

Cong waves black flags,detained

Around 40 members of Youth Congress here waved black flags at the Run for Unity,which was flagged off by BJP patriarch L K Advani at the mega event on Sunday morning. The police detained them and released after the event got over.

Congress’s city unit president Pankaj Shah said the black flags were not against the Run,but against corruption and the snooping row. “Modi should first come clean on the Godhara carnage,the snooping row. Now this sudden commemoration of Sardar Patel just when election is round the corner,” Shah said. He went on to say that an event like Run for Unity alone would do no good to the country. “It must be all-inclusive…ensuring justice to riot victims …Modi must first change himself and apologise to the country for his role in the Godhra carnage. Otherwise,he has no right to talk of unity,” he said.