Had Patel been India’s 1st PM, many problems wouldn’t have existed: Shah

“Only a man who is remembered long after his death can be called great… that was Patel. There is a public opinion in the country that if Patel was made the first prime minister, the country would not have faced many problems it is facing today,” he added.

“Despite efforts made by some people to ignore Patel, he is still in the mind of every Indian because he was a practical leader who never desired fame. Even after getting the most votes in the Congress Working Committee at the time of Independence, he gave up the post of Prime Minister so that the new government remained free of controversy,” Shah said.

Addressing the students, Shah said the primary education should be imparted only in mother tongue. “Students should also get the opportunity to learn Tamil, Urdu and Bengali along with Hindi. We will not allow any language and dialect of India to disappear,” he said, adding that he urged the youth to learn any language but not at the cost of mother tongue, which, he said, enhances a person’s decision making and analytical power.

“Knowledge of English is linked to intellectual prowess but the fact is that language is just a medium of expression. It is the responsibility of the youth to break this inferiority complex created due to a language. If we give the credit for the development of the country to only a few people who speak good English, then most of the children will be left out,” he said, adding an important dimension of the new National Education Policy (NEP) of the Modi government is that the primary education should only be in native language, while regional languages should be there as options to pursue technical education, research and medical education.

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Statue of Unity was installed. It is because of Sardar Patel that Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar, Jodhpur, Junagadh and Hyderabad are part of India today. It was Patel who sent the army to J&K to ensue that Kashmir remained an integral part of India. Without him, the map of India would not have been as it looks today,” he said.

Shah also said that Patel had advocated giving Dr B R Ambedkar the task of drafting and compiling the Constitution. To understand the soul of the Constitution, he urged children to read the constitution debates of Sardar Patel, K M Munshi and Ambedkar.