‘Do you accept Sardar Patel’s ban on RSS?’

“In reality,Modi,BJP and RSS don’t love Sardar Patel,but they simply show in their speeches under political compulsions,” he further said.

“The drama of erecting Statue of Unity has been orchestrated by Modi only to belittle the significance of Sardar Sarovar Dam,conceived and built under the Congress rule,” he added,adding that the foundation of the dam was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru himself.

“But Modi has failed the dreams of Sardar Patel,who wanted to take Narmada water to the fields of farmers in Gujarat,” the Congress leader said.

‘State govt plans to acquire 25 hectares of land allotted to Somnath temple trust’

AHMEDABAD: Criticising Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s comments that “secularism of Sardar Patel did not come in his way of building Somnath Temple”,former state Congress president Siddharth Patel said that while Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as India’s first Union Home Minister had allotted 250 hectares of land to the Somnath Temple Trust for development of the area on lease for a period of 999 years,The Modi government was taking back 25 hectares of it after creation of a new Gir-Somnath district.

Addressing mediapersons at the state party headquarters here on Thursday,he said that after annexing Junagadh state into Saurashtra on October 12,1947,the then Saurashtra state government on Sardar Patel’s orders had allotted the land to the temple trust.

“But Modi government is demanding back 25 hectares of it and Gir-Somnath district collector had written a letter to the trust on October 8,2013 in this connection,” he claimed.

“Modi is doing politics in the name of Sardar Patel,” the Congress leader said.

“There is a vast difference in the words and the deeds of Modi and the Somnath temple trust land acquisition incident is an ample proof of this,” he added.

He also displayed a copy of the letter which says that “no land is available at Somnath for construction of offices for district collector,district police and district development officer.

“You are requested to hand over 25 hectares of land to the government,” the letter says.